The Fifth and Sixth Jidai
by Juupitrie
Summary: The Rokudaime Hokage is in love with his secretary.
1. Chapter 1

**The Fifth and Sixth Jidai**

Summary: Rokudaime is in love with his attendant.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. And I really don't want to either since it's getting way too complicated and I would end it in a really slap-dash way and I'm probably sure the fans will all hate me when I change the title of the manga to 'Hinata' because I honestly favor her more than any other character...as you'll see in this fanfiction.

Author's Notes: This is a Hinta-centric fic that I must warn you-is very confusing. I'm the author, and I'm completely aware that there are several scenes that will be hard to follow, especially since we'll be going back and forth in Hinata's timeline while the perspective would be changing here and there as well. This is mainly due to the fact that this story was actually two individual stories with the same concept-Naruto falling in love with Hinata, his secretary. I realized one of my stories was moving on VERY SLOWLY in a painstaking snail-like pace where Hinata finds out she's going to be secretary way before Naruto even becomes Hokage. In my other story, Naruto's already Hokage and is realizing he has the hots for Hinata and moves this _fast_. I've decided to mesh these two together, because I thought it would be cool for readers to see how much Hinata cares for her job and for Naruto, while highlighting Naruto's brashness and maybe his lack of consideration for how much Hinata has sacrificed for him. I felt like this concept really highlights Hinata's character, and this story is just that-me gushing over my favorite character. There's no other way to put it, really. I'm sure if you love Hinata you'll dig this story, but if you think she's ok, I must warn you this might be really hard to follow.

To make it a little more clear, the Naruto-persective stories will be titled 'Rokudaime-Era' meaning Naruto's already Hokage and Hinata's already his secretary, while the 'Godaime Era' will be when Tsunade is still Hokage and Shizune is training Hinata to become the next personal assistant. I know it's not very clear yet-but hopefully by the end of this chapter you'll realize the flow of things. Again, this is only a fanfiction written by a person who can't write, so I hope nobody expects too much out of this. Lol.

Terms:

Godaime Hokage- Fifth Hokage aka...Tsunade

Rokudaime Hokage- Sixth Hokage aka...Uzumaki Naruto

"Jidai" means Era. Yeah, just to confuse people and to make my title sound a little cooler. I can say 'Godaime Jidai' and 'Rokudaime Jidai' but for some reason that's too much Japanese to be thrusting in an English fanfiction.

Important note: This fanfiction was originally posted on Archive of Our Own-not that I'm saying that this version is any different...except that the one on Archive of Our Own comes with PICTURES. So If you're interested, find the link in my profile! Thanks!

* * *

((Rokudaime Era / Present Time))

It was a brutal break up.

A lot of crying, a lot of name calling on both their ends, and finally a very, very messy fight where she did most of the throwing and kicking while he ducked and dodged. At the end of the long battle, she left looking as if she got the brut of all the force that was put into the fight, and he knew that he looked like he always did except with a few more ink-stains on his cloak, and a surplus of ruined belongings and documents. Sweaty and covered in running mascara, she left with a slam and a final scream. He rubbed his face once he felt her presence had disappeared completely and sank back into his seat. He realized there were a few more clutter on his desk that didn't get picked up and thrown across the room, and swept it off his desk in an attempt to express his own frustrations.

It seemed that the Rokudaime Hokage didn't know how to end relationships well. This wasn't the first time he had to sit down in his office that looked more like a post-battlefield. It was the second time he had broken up in his office, and yet it ended exactly like it did the last. Even some of the choice words he threw at her sounded the same. She expressed her emotions through a crackling vocal chords and called him the sort of name that left him wondering if people still thought of him that way.

But despite the hurtful words she said, and the fact that he was back to being single, he hadn't regretted finally blowing up and telling her that they were through. He was glad he broke up with her, and at the end, thought it went a hell of a lot better than the _last-last_ breakup.

He just couldn't believe what that woman was _thinking_.

No, more like he just didn't understand what goes on in a girls' brain, _period_. It was an utter mystery to him, and it made him sometimes want to pull his hair and go absolutely mad!

_You don't get me at all, Naruto!_ She had screamed at him seconds ago.

_You understand war tactics and Morse code, but when your girlfriend gives you a blatant hint that they're afraid of how distant you've gotten-you act like you don't have a clue as to what's making her go ape-shit crazy!_

Just a mere two years in office, and he's already broken up with four women, and each one had similar reasons for breaking up with him that he couldn't exactly do anything about. His schedule, his distance, his lack of understanding her emotions, and what not. Naruto couldn't help these things for obvious reasons, and he had always assumed they understood his position as the strongest shinobi in the village, that he was a busy man. But this last breakup had a new reason thrown into the mix.

_I see the way you look at her! Your fucking _secretary_-how cliché is that? _

He always went after the strong-willed and over-confident women that resembled his own demeanor. Kurumi was a great girl because of that. She was most definitely strong-willed, over-confident, extremely sexy, and had gorgeous orange-red hair that he thought slightly resembled his mother's. She was also very needy, and obsessive, and rough, and had the dirty mouth of a sailor that he thought he liked. But her recent accusation had him grit his teeth and want to actually _hit her_. He knew it was wrong to hit a woman, but all of his affections he thought he had for her left every single time Kurumi spoke badly of the one woman that didn't _yell_ at him and ask him to move in together, or demand for a copy of his apartment key. Kurumi had no right thinking that there was anything going on between them-she was _crazy_.

He just didn't know how he was going to come out of his office knowing that _she_ was out there and had heard every single word. He blushed crimson at the very thought. Kurumi was very public about sharing her opinion about the woman that sat by Naruto's side as his personal attendant.

Just as he was thinking about her, a knock sounded on his door.

"Hokage-sama? May I come in?" her gentle voice pried.

Naruto walked up, and opened his office door as an answer. "I'm...sorry." he said and bowed his head. "I'm sorry she...jumped you like that, Hinata."

The woman that stood before him was blushing a furious red at his comment. He hadn't seen that in the longest time and stared, realizing she had drowned out that habit of blushing and fidgeting long before he became Hokage.

Gone were the days where Hinata Hyuuga was a mousy girl that fidgeted and spoke in a near-whisper. The girl had grown to be a fine Hokage's assistant soon after her promotion to Jounin, and served under the Godaime Hokage before being passed to Naruto. She had years of political science and Konoha history under her belt that she presented using a calm waver-free voice. Hinata's shy demeanor melted away after the first few months of working under the previous Hokage's attendant Shizune who had encouraged her to stand straight and dress to impress. Dignitaries and important officials that would come to see the Hokage would become extremely fond of the well-spoken and highly cultured girl that stood by the Hokage. The old jacket, shy demeanor, and fidgety pokey-fingers were all exchanged for a clipboard and sharp looking kimono-suits that accentuated her mature twenty two year old self.

Yet, her old tendencies of thinking positively, undying kindness, and looking at the best in people had never melted away. Though professional, she had also let Naruto take a peak at her clean and wholesome soul, and Naruto had found she really was one of the kindest shinobi he had the fortune to meet. When she entered the room, it was natural for him to freeze and stare.

He didn't think it was weird. She had quickly and easily become the most reliant person in his life. He looked up to her just as much as she had looked up to him.

"Hokage-sama." Hinata was clutching at her clipboard nervously to hide a portion of her blushing face, "Do not apologize for someone else's actions. Kurumi-san must have obviously been under some serious stress. She _has_ been getting a lot of tough missions."

"Wh-_why_ did she do that?" Naruto asked, searching for answers in Hinata's small face. Her blush was slowly fading away, and some of her hair had slipped out of her usually neat hairstyle when she was tackled earlier. The strand of dark, purple-black hair stuck to her neck from obvious cold sweats that soon followed after Naruto and Kurumi started their fight. His eyes flashed toward that curled lock of hair and he suddenly had an urge to wipe the curve of her neck with his thumb and feel her pulse. These sudden urges were getting harder and harder for him to ignore.

Hinata shrugged, and shook her head either saying she didn't know or didn't know what to say.

"Did she hurt you?" Naruto asked and took a step forward and grabbed a hold of her wrist.

"Please, Hokage-sama." Hinata looked away and jerked her wrist back. "Thank you for your concern, but I am fine, I am a kunoichi of the leaf, first and foremost, and a small shove shouldn't arise your concern. You should be more worried about yourself."

"After she...pinned you down and _kissed you_ like that?" Naruto snapped, his voice rising. "Hinata-that wasn't ok! You should be angry too!"

"But I'm not." Hinata sighed, "Maybe a little...upset, but I know why she did it, and I can't help but think that you didn't handle it very well with her."

Naruto's eyes widened. "You're...siding with _Kurumi_?"

"All I'm saying is that you may have overreacted. What she did wasn't nice, but you could have been more mature about it."

Naruto was shocked at her response. "S-she _molested_ you! I protected you and you're saying I should have cared more for _HER_?"

"She's your girlfriend, Naruto-sama!" Hinata emphasized with a small frown that pinched her eyebrows together. She had even slipped into her old habit of calling him by his first name.

"_Was_ my girlfriend. Not anymore." Naruto huffed and shuffled back into his office, carefully stepping over a broken vase on the ground. "Get a janitor to clean this up." He ordered over his shoulder.

He heard silence behind him, and if he turned around he was sure he were to see disappointed eyes stare back at him. The mere thought of her being upset at him did strange things to his insides again.

He sighed. "Please."

"Is that all?" Hinata was already in the midst of closing the door over her voice.

"Send word for Shikamaru." Naruto muttered. "I need help with these documents."

"I can help with that, Hokage-sama." Hinata offered.

"No, you can go." Naruto wouldn't look back at her. He relaxed the moment he heard the door to his office click shut.

_You want her, don't you_?

Kurumi's words echoed in Naruto's mind and he suddenly realized why he was so upset when Kurumi attacked Hinata. Kurumi opened his eyes to what he had been feeling for Hinata for the past _year_. It wasn't just fondness for how she treated him as a boss, but seeing Hinata attacked so brutally had formed a fear in his gut that he usually reserved for his closest _friends_. She was still his friend, a really close friend, and he realized that Hinata was just...more _important_ than Kurumi. He and Kurumi weren't that close yet-how could she do that to Hinata? What did Hinata ever do to her?

The scene played in his head just as he heard Hinata click the door to his office shut. In solitude, he recalled how Kurumi barged into his office without warning and barked at the Chuunin team that was going over mission reports to scram. When he got up and asked what the matter was, Kurumi ordered Hinata to come in. Naruto tried to stop his raging girlfriend, and tried to ask what the matter was, but before he knew it. Hinata had poked into the room as her obedient self, and was suddenly grabbed by collar of her kimono, and was callously thrown onto the floor of his office.

Naruto suddenly felt overwhelming fury at seeing Hinata being thrown so violently on the floor as a rain of documents she was holding got tossed into the air, a fair of slap-dash confetti tumble around the trodden assistant. Kurumi pinned Hinata down a second later and before Naruto jumped over his desk to try to save Hinata, Kurumi _kissed_ her. Girl on girl. Despite Naruto's perverted teachers showing him the wonderful arts of perverted ninjutsu, Naruto had never seen it up front before in real life. He froze.

Hinata's shy, innocent mouth; merely was open after the breath was knocked out of her lungs was soon invaded by a foreign tongue. He watched Hinata's eyes widen and her arms wave wildly before pressing into Kurumi's shoulder and desperately trying to get her off.

Naruto shouted at her to stop without realizing what he was saying. He couldn't hear or grasp exactly what was going on until he heard his voice call Hinata's name more than his girlfriend's. He grabbed a hold of Kurumi around the arms and trying to yank her off without using all of his force. Kurumi was making Hinata cough and choke in the forceful kiss. He heard Hinata gag a couple of times and turn her head away, but Kurumi kept the attack going by following her movement and smearing her lips over the poor girl to keep her shouts of protest muffled.

"_GET OFF OF HER!" _Naruto then up and _threw_ Kurumi off of Hinata and picked her up protectively. He and Hinata gaped in shock as Kurumi rolled all the way to the other side of his office, and crashed into Naruto's prized plants he kept by the large Hokage office windows. The woman laid there for dramatic effect, wanting Naruto to rush forward to help her, but Naruto kept by Hinata's side.

"_Did you wanna join us?"_ Kurumi asked and lifted her head from the ground to shoot Naruto a hurt and absolutely enraged glare.

Naruto gulped, as the memory ended and his gut was filled with that red hot rage again. He took deep breathes through his nostrils and leaned on his desk with his arms to calm himself by counting backwards in his head. Kurumi was a mistake. She was too crazy, too brash, and she was constantly worrying that he was getting _bored_ of her. She had none of that self-confidence that Naruto had thought she had.

And why Hinata? Why did Kurumi feel the need to target his poor Hinata?

He rubbed his eyes again, since he knew the answer to that question very well. Kurumi was jealous of Hinata, pure and simple. It wasn't like Kurumi was subtle or mature about it either. She didn't surprise Naruto with half of the things she said today in their last fight-she didn't like Hinata because she was so close to him, and she wanted him to know how uncomfortable she felt that Hinata was always around. Kurumi was known to be a tough gal, and a very beautiful woman with vibrant hair and a fit body. Yet, standing next to the dark-haired and plain secretary who only dressed in black, one would simply assume she'd feel safe that she was so much more exuberant. Kurumi, however, noticed something else.

Hinata was loved. The majority of the shinobi in the village absolutely _adored_ her. Kurumi might have had confidence that she was a great looking girl and was a lot sexier than Hinata, but Kurumi was smart when she realized that looks weren't everything. Hinata might be plain on the outside, but she had a beautiful heart that made her shine from the inside out. Kurumi saw how shinobi young and old would pause briefly to either speak or acknowledge Hinata's existance before going into seeing the Hokage. The biggest mystery for Kurumi, was that Hinata could do all of this by just being her calm and soft-spoken self.

Naruto himself could remember how many times Kurumi would look over her shoulder at the shy woman and ask why she was so popular. Naruto would honestly say, 'because she's _awesome_', and of course that didn't quell the fear that Kurumi was starting to develop. Kurumi would then grab at Naruto's arm and ask, 'who do you think is more sexy? Me or her?' and of course Naruto knew the answer to _that_...

Who's sexier? Kurumi, easily.

But who was smarter, kinder, faster, braver, softer, and always, _always_ looking out for everyone but herself? Who was the one that always had his back and was constantly diving into situations to save him from more work or organize free time in his schedule so that he could spend a date with his _girlfriend_/?

Hinata.

Kurumi shouldn't have done what she did to her, and Naruto couldn't shake his anger out of his system yet at the memory of Kurumi forcing herself onto Hinata. But Hinata had already forgiven Kurumi herself. Hinata brushed it off like it was nothing.

For some reason Hinata's reaction to this whole event had made the realities of what Kurumi said sink in even further. He was absolutely amazed by her, now that he thought of it. Who does that? Forgive a person and feel sorry for them that easily? Naruto knew he couldn't, and he was renown for his role as a beacon of peace and acceptance.

_You look at her_...Kurumi's voice repeated over and over, and all the while flashes of Hinata's face came into view. Some where teary-eyed, some were smiling, some were simply of her glancing toward the door just as she set down his morning tea...he suddenly had an entire library of faces that she made and he was overwhelmed at how this had made him feel.

He may have broken up with Kurumi that day, but thanks to her shoving and kicking and screaming he finally was able to drill through his thick skull a very deadly and devastating revelation.

Naruto was in love with Hinata Hyuuga.

* * *

((Godaime Era))

*****Flashback three years ago *

Konoha started to hustle and bustle way before the crack of dawn. Everyone had to be familiar with waking up at around five in the morning at least once a week if they were to survive a mere Genin routine, if not, you'll simply get the customary wake up call from Guy Sensei and Lee as they started their thousand-meter dash around the city shouting and hooting their calls for a bright youthful day.

Hinata was lucky she always thought of herself as a morning person. Since she was forced into Konoha's morning regime even before she was old enough to run, she had never found it odd to wake in the middle of the night to start her chores or finish her breakfast. It wasn't until she reached the title Jounin, however, that she suddenly found her routine completely flipped. No longer did she start her day at five in the morning preparing breakfast, doing her morning exercises and cleaning up her sister's mess. No, as a Jounin, she worked with the moon, and slept with the sun. And at times even that wasn't enough, and she'd go a day or two sleepless just to combat and keep up her Jounin scores.

Hinata absolutely hated being a Jounin. She just couldn't see the silver lining of this prized title.

There were many things about being a ninja that Hinata disliked, but achieving the title of Jounin only carried a multitude of heartaches for the poor, kind-hearted kunoichi of Konohagakure. Every mission entailed promises of excitement, but it also came with the responsibility of solo missions, timed accomplishments, a higher degree of competitiveness amongst her peers, and to top it off, many of the missions included assassinations.

It had been a half a year since Hinata achieved Jounin status amongst her other teammates Kiba and Shino, and for that half year her skin turned an even paler shade of white, her eyes started to darken, her sleeping habits were abysmal and her strength was starting to slip. It was about time her 'Jounin vacation' would start soon. A 'Jounin vacation' was given to Jounins at least once a month-where they could rest and recuperate. They were given optional missions that they were free to turn down. Since Hinata, and her peers were new Jounin, they weren't given their freebie until they had experienced the new life schedule of a Jounin for a solid half-year. But everyone was ready to settle down and take a breather. Everyone was excited for this hectic lifestyle to take a pause and simply get some good shut-eye, and maybe a sun tan.

Hinata assumed she, and the rest of her Jounin peers were being sent to the Hokage towers at five in the morning to recieve their week-long recuperation get-away. She would get her generous pay from her lastest mission, and she could splurge on a face pack and a few of those girly icecream Sundays topped with cut up bits of her favorite pastry-cinnamon rolls. She sighed at the thought of treating herself to absolute bliss, and pressed her hand to her chest at the thought of sleep-a dreamless sleep that would make her sharper and more ready for her next long bout of Jounin duties.

When she reached the Hokage monument, she wasn't surprised to see Genin ninjas, from freshly out of the Academy to those who simply were Genin until they were in their late twenties, gathering around with their Jounin instructors to discuss tactics for their D-rank missions. She watched sleepy-eyed as the energetic young ninjas chatted merrily to one another ready for their day to start.

Hinata, yawned, ready for her day to end. She covered her yawn as daintily as possible as she walked up the flight of stairs and finally toward the level where the Hokage office was. She noticed the hallway toward the Hokage office was clear, and instantly realized that something was amiss.

This was usually the time that ANBU officers were getting their missions for the day, or at least the Jounin instructors in charge of the Chuunin and Genins to get their mountain of missions for the week.

Hinata glanced around, even activating her blood limit to confirm that it was only her that disturbed the silence of the hallway before walking into the reception area of the Hokage towers. She caught sight of Shizune immediately and walked up to her.

Shizune looked fresh and energized, with her short hair recently rinsed and washed and her tiny pet pig snug in her arms. She balanced the fat thing on her hip while scribbling something down with her free hand onto a scroll that was rolled open on her desk. Shizune paused when she felt the presence of another ninja but looked up calmly and professionally. She offered a curt nod when she saw Hinata.

"Hello Shizune-san." Hinata greeted. "Good morning." She bowed politely.

"Hinata-chan!" Shizune smiled, she glanced down at her schedule, which she kept on a clipboard hanging directly behind her. "Punctual, as per usual. Come on in, the Hokage is just finishing up on claim reports."

Hinata nodded curtly, and invited herself into the Hokage office without further ado. She saw the Godaime Hokage, Tsunade, hard at work at her desk. A lamp lit and a pile of paper work was strewn all around the floors of the office already. Tsunade, although fifty, looked top notch for her age, some even went as far as saying she looked as young as thirty! However, Hinata saw that several years as the Hokage had done a strain to the elder woman's eyes, and Hinata smiled fondly at the fact that she had a pair of glasses with invisible frames propped up on her face as she studied some forms before her. She quickly tucked them away the moment Hinata shut the door behind her. The Hokage never liked to be seen actually _using_ her reading glasses.

"Hinata, right on time." The Fifth Hokage muttered to mostly herself as she heard the door open and shut. She finished up her last sentence she was writing before finally looking up to greet Hinata with eye contact. "Good, you're awake." She nodded and offered a joking smile. "How were the past few months of being a Jounin been for you?"

"It is a lot harder than Kurenai-sensei made it look. I have much to learn." Hinata answered softly, and couldn't help but rub her eye quickly as she felt one of her lids flutter, trying to shut itself for a much-needed, much prolonged sleep.

"Hm. You are a hard worker, Hinata. Which is why I called you here today."

Hinata's heart rose in her chest. She was getting her vacation!

But where were her friends? A subconscious thought arose in the back of her mind. Usually the rest of the Jounin that had graduated into the rank alongside of Hinata would get to have their first Jounin vacation _together_ so that they could have a big celebration extravaganza.

But then Hinata quickly reminded herself she _was_ usually the only one out of her friends that came right to the Hokage office on time. Kiba and Shino, as well as Ino, Chouji, Lee, Ten-ten, and the rest were definitely just a few seconds late...

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Hinata quickly said, clearly distracted by the thought of her absent friends.

The Fifth Hokage nodded with an 'umph', impressed with Hinata's poise. "You are also a fine looking woman now."

Hinata didn't know if she heard correctly, but did recognize the compliment. She heard versions of this compliment sprinkled here and there ever since she became old enough for marriage when she turned 17, she became used to the sudden praise toward her physical appearance, but paid it little mind. It was people simply being nice to the heiress after all, their words didn't actually make any sense. Hinata didn't _change_ much in appearance, so she always modestly blushed and shook her head.

"You are also very organized, and your mission reports have _amazed_ me these past several months. You are detailed, clean, and precise in each case. For a Jounin undergoing their first six months, this is an amazing task, Hinata. You were under stress, a new schedule, lack of sleep, and I still can understand every bloody word in your report. They. Are. Excellent."

Hinata blinked groggily now. She didn't know where this sudden praise was coming from, but she had to honestly say she wished her friends would pile in soon so that the Hokage would take some attention off of her. All of this praise made Hinata feel strangely out of place.

"But now I want to talk to you about something serious. Take a seat."

There it was.

Hinata suddenly grew frightful at the mere suggestion. Her eyes widened, and she felt all of her sleepiness from before suddenly evaporated. Her mouth slightly agape, and her heart pounding in her ears, Hinata felt her body automatically reacting to the order and seating herself subconsciously in front of her leader. Suddenly the thought of her missing peers were far from her mind, she couldn't even remember exactly how she got in the office! Her Hokage was suddenly interrogating her and she probably wouldn't be able to answer as quickly and professionally as she wanted-she hadn't slept in what felt like forever!

"H-Hokage-sama." Hinata bowed her head, ready for the onslaught of disappointment.

"I'm sure you've probably heard the rumors, but I'll be stepping down from my current post in a matter of years. I'm personally hoping three. No, make that two."

Hinata blinked up at her Hokage, she heard a small crack and noticed she accidentally popped one of her knuckles as she squeezed them tightly. She unraveled her fingers from each other, realizing they were causing more of a distraction, and forced them to simply grip the sides of her seat.

Hinata gulped. "I have heard those rumors."

"And you know who I want as my successor."

Hinata nodded. "Naruto-kun." His very name gave her the same affects of a small dose of caffeine, her eyes widened more, her face filled up more, her heart raced a little more.

"_Wrong_. I was thinking of someone else." The Hokage spoke darkly.

Hinata's eyes furrowed, her eyes blinked rapidly disbelieving what she was hearing. "Who could possibly..." she must have not heard right.

"Shikamaru. Shikamaru would be a better Hokage than Naruto."

Hinata's eyes widened. "Wha-wha-" she couldn't help but feel tears in her eyes. "Oh Hokage-sama this is...this would be devastating for Naruto-kun! Shikamaru-kun is a very intelligent ninja, and I respect him with all of my heart but I always thought-I know Naruto will be wonderful! It's been Naruto-kun's dream all along! It would crush him! It would absolutely-! He's _destined_ to be Hokage!" She started to blabber, and she realized tears fell from her eyes like a streaming river the next second. She had also failed to notice the sly smile on the Hokage's face.

"I was only _joking_, Hinata. Calm down." The Hokage laughed, even though Hinata was crying, she _loved_ joking around at this time of day just as her Jounins were coming in all groggy and disoriented while _she_ had to be forced from a wonderful slumber. "I'm sorry, that was a little too soon. Calm down-but I do want to talk about that squirt."

Hinata blushed on cue. The Orange-clad ninja still had a death grip over Hinata's heart. He was the one that inspired her to become stronger when everyone else claimed she was weak. And although everyone told her he didn't deserve her outlandish affections, _he_ was the only one who confirmed to the rest of the world that she was _trying_. He was the one that pushed her forward to become the woman that she was today.

And that was just _one_ of the reasons why she was utterly, and hopelessly in love with him.

Joking about Naruto in front of Hinata was the worst idea one could think about, and Hinata herself didn't know how to stop her tears even after hearing that her Hokage was only joking. The thought of Naruto _not_ becoming Hokage had been a more horrifying thought than Hinata had realized. Even after taking long breaths to calm herself, the stream wouldn't stop.

"Hinata." The Hokage continued with no mind to the fact that Hinata was still looking utterly lost after the last 'joke', "What do you feel about being a Jounin?"

"It...is a rewarding position. An honor. I am forever grateful that I'm serving my village to the fullest."

"You aren't though." The Hokage said briskly.

This didn't help the stream of tears that were already blurring Hinata's vision. Hinata blinked stupidly. The harsh words stung in the air like a hot slap to the face. Hinata merely said the things grateful Jounins would say to a boss ninja, even if you didn't mean those modest words all the time, she knew she indeed felt like she was working to the fullest. The harsh slapdown of this comment, made Hinata shiver and her earlier suspicion of harsh scolding heightened.

"What I mean to say is, even though you are an _outstanding_ Kunoichi, and you have blossomed in your Jounin career," the Hokage continues, "You were always better at other things other than Shinobi duties, correct?"

Hinata saw where this was going...somewhat. She had to admit she's heard her father talk to her about 'other duties' she could fulfill for her clan, including marrying some wealthy man and having many white-eyed children, but she was hoping the Hokage wouldnt' bring _that_ up. She was still afraid of the possible job offer that the Hokage was going to thrust in her face any moment from now.

_Say good bye to the Cinnamon-bon-bon Sunday Extreme, _Hinata thought sadly. The thought of her wonderfully girly icecream treat grew little angel wings and flew away from her hopes and dreams.

"You are an elite, Hinata. You now have the skills as a top-class ninja to defend even the strongest of shinobi. Your kanji skills, history knowledge, political finesse, and much much more...would make you the perfect candidate for this next position, but you will have to stop your current Jounin _duties_. Do not worry-" the Hokage saw the pale look on the poor girl's face and offered a smile, "You will always keep your position as Jounin, you have proven yourself worthy of that title many times over. But I think you'll be _happier_ if you stopped doing missions."

Hinata was confused. "An inactive Jounin?" her eyes widened, "Will I have to work...from home?" the very thought made her last mission of decapitating an evil drug lord in Kumogakure seem like a breeze compared to the thought of accepting clan head and having the Hyuuga elders breath down her neck. "Are...you making me take over my father's position?"

"Oh heavens-no." Tsunade sighed, "Though I have thought of your father and that Hyuuga clan of yours-that can be a bit of an issue."

Hinata frowned, so her clan wasn't involved in whatever new job position Tsunade was trying to offer her. In fact, it sounded like it would make her clan unhappy.

And if her sleepy mind recalled earlier-Tsunade mentioned that this was about Naruto.

"I think you'll work best if you worked from _here_. The Hokage towers. We need a shinobi like yourself to watch over this place, and use your natural skills to make life for a Hokage easier."

Hinata blinked. "A Jounin guard? Aren't I...too young to be taking such a position?" she asked. The only other Jounin shinobi that were able to get such an easy, yet high-rank position was if they had decades of experience under their belts. To work directly for the Hokage would mean years of hard work, or an extremely high IQ like Shikamaru. Hinata had none of those things, and she wasn't sure what claiming an office Jounin title would exactly do to her rank. Not that guarding the Hokage tower wasn't an important job, but like Hinata thought earlier, it was a normally easy routine. It only became difficult if the Hokage was under attack-which does happen more often than one would think, however it is a far cry easier than going on A-rank missions every week and battling enemy-nins every other day.

But a Jounin Guard duty would mean an actual _schedule_. Hinata wouldn't be called out of her bed as soon as she got home from Konoha to tackle on another solo mission, or forced to group with other Jounins on an assassination mission on a night of a New Moon. Hinata realized that being on guard duty would bring back the good old days of waking up on _time_. Going to work at an easy hour, and seeing the _sun_.

Though it would probably make her look slightly bit lazy to accept such a high-ranking position so early in her Jounin career, Hinata couldn't ignore the lovely benefits of having a schedule. She wasn't like other shinobi who hated being strapped down by the clock, Hinata actually liked organization, she was raised to embrace it, and even had to grow up organizing a grand portion of her clan chores in order to get her ready for more complicated organization if she ever took over the clan.

Hokage was shaking her head though while Hinata had a million thoughts run through her mind.

"You're not experienced enough to take on an _official_ Jounin Guard position, I'm afraid." The Hokage said with a gentle smile, "We customarily give those positions to Jounins who have young children."

Hinata nodded, she knew this already, "Of course. I...know this but..."

"I was thinking more along the lines of Hokage's assistant." Hokage finally revealed.

Hinata blinked, "Isn't that...Shizune-san's job?"

"Yes, it is." Hokage nodded curtly, "And she's damn good at it, too. But she wants to retire as Hokage's assistant the same time I retire as Hokage. These are actually customary traditions I'm afraid; the Hokage's second hand likes to be the second hand of only one Hokage. Shizune doesn't see herself becoming very helpful if she has to take orders from Naruto."

Hinata beamed instantly.

"S-So...Naruto-kun _will_ be Hokage!"

The Hokage beamed as well, taking note that Hinata was already extremely loyal to her future Hokage.

"This is exactly why I thought you would be _perfect_ for being our next Hokage's assistant. You will be crucial in shaping Naruto up to be the fine leader we all know he will be."

Hinata felt absolutely light headed.

"When do I start?" Hinata heard herself say in a breathy, dreamy voice. She was so overcome with this sudden joy. She was wide awake, she wanted to cry out and...and...sing! She hadn't wanted to do that since the day Kurenai-sensei's baby was born.

Hokage beamed. "So you'll take the job?"

"Oh, I would be so honored, Hokage-sama!" Hinata gushed, naturally infatuated by the idea. She had pressed her hands to her chest and she blinked away the last of her tears. Hokage snorted, seeing just how smitten the young jounin really was to the oblivious boy. "I..." she suddenly paled though, "Wait a second."

Hokage waited a second.

"I'm...I'm going to be _Naruto-kun's_ se-se-secretary?"

"Well," Hokage felt like she needed correct. "It's better to call it 'Hokage's hand' or...even 'Vice-Hokage'."

This didn't help, Hinata suddenly gasped dramatically, and stood up on her feet, shoving the chair back and making it loudly slam onto the floor.

"W-w-wait." Hinata quickly said. "I would be working with Naruto-kun every day then."

The Hokage had thought of this too, and was glad that Hinata brought this very troubling issue up.

"Yes, about that...crush of yours..." the Hokage just cut in rather bluntly. "We do need to...discuss that if you want this position."

Hinata felt around for her chair again, and only then noticed that she had flipped it on it's back. She righted her chair, sat on it again, and gave her Hokage all of her undivided attention.

"You can't love Naruto if you want to be his secretary. I mean-in a _romantic_ way, you understand?"

Hinata paled. "Um. I-I don't though!" Hinata tried lying as she tried to muster a very casual shrug.

Her Hokage retaliated by giving her the dumbest looks imaginable. A mix between 'are you kidding me' and 'knock it off'.

Hinata gasped, and hung her head, covering her eyes with one of her hands as she tried her shield herself from the look the Hokage was giving her.

"I admire your love toward him, Hinata. That's actually one of the reasons why I picked you. You need to love your Hokage to protect him or her with your life! But you must work on being able to properly pronounce yourself, and your future Hokage. Being nervous around your own Hokage...can speak volumes in the eyes of a foreign dictator. It can loose your position as his second-hand-man completely if you don't work on it."

Hinata heard the 'if' in the Hokage's cautionary words and slowly lowered the hand that was covering her face. She glanced up at the Hokage through her bangs.

"I won't be stepping down from my position right away, and Shizune needs to train you in the art of politics and what not way before we alert Naruto that he will be my successor. But you must promise to work on your...nervousness toward Naruto. I cannot force you to stop loving the boy, Hinata, but you must understand that it's important to be professional in front of the eyes of Konoha and the rest of the Shinobi world. Naruto can not have an infatuated school-girl being his secretary."

Hinata winced at the very thought. She was tempted to start poking her fingers, but fisted her hands, and lifted her head.

"If I can prove that I can act professionally around Naruto-kun, then you are saying that I may be his secretary?"

"His right-hand-man." Corrected the Hokage, nodding.

Hinata blushed, at the mere concept of being in the same _building_ as Naruto, but to constantly be working with him and interrupting him, and being the closest female worker...

The thought was _very_ tempting. Not to mention she can stop going on those random and draining Jounin missions. Sure, Hokage office duties were no laughing matter and she'd have her work cut out for her...

But she'd be working with _Naruto_ and a _schedule_, not to mention _the sun_.

And she would keep her status as Jounin.

It sounded like a win-win scenario for her.

"I will take the job." Hinata said firmly, determination flaring in her eyes. "I...I will be the most professional Right-hand-man for our next Hokage."

"Thatta girl!" the Hokage cheered as well. "Oh one quick precaution." She held up a finger, and also dropped her enthusiastic smile that she was wearing only a second ago.

Hinata blinked.

"Remember when I said I can't force you to stop loving Naruto-I have to warn you that the council members _can_."

Hinata blinked again, not understanding.

"Meaning-if word comes out that Naruto and his _secretary_ are hiding a secret...romantic relationship." Hinata flared like a fire cracker, "It can jeopardize everything Naruto had worked hard for. Get my drift?"

Hinata's eyes widened. She knew _exactly_ what the Hokage meant, and frankly, was a little shocked that the Hokage thought she had to spell it out for her.

"That means even though you're working with Naruto. NEVER, and I mean _never_ should you try to romance him off his feet. Am I clear? The Hokage will stay your _boss_, not your _lover_. For life."

Hinata quickly nodded though, she understood full well the moment the Hokage _offered_ the position what it meant. Hinata was always a professional first, after all. Again, she felt a little embarrassed that her Hokage had to clarify the 'terms' so bluntly to her. The mere thought of doing such...activities with Naruto would make her _faint_ after all. Despite what everyone teases her about, Hinata hadn't been able to even _daydream_ the possibility that one day she and Naruto could be a couple. She admired him, and loved him, yes, and _wished_ she could be good enough for him, but for some reason, it ended there-hanging. It had always felt this way ever since she confessed to him on a battlefield millions of years ago...and he had never said a word back about it!

"O-of course! Hokage-sama. I am very well aware of this! I completely understand!" she said breathily. "I wouldn't ever want to stand in the way of Naruto-kun's dreams."

"Even if he offers to step down as Hokage for you-remember that you don't want to be the person who makes him give up on his dreams. I've seen what that kind of damage does to a relationship, and trust me-even if Naruto falls head over heels for you and wants to give up on his dreams, _you_ would never forgive yourself once he gets put in an uncomfortable position by the council members."

Hinata nodded curtly and seriously. Her eyes stern. She understood completely. She would _never_ shame Naruto. Never. She was confident that she wouldn't.

"When do I start?" Hinata repeated, this time-clearly and professionally. She sat tall and proud in her chair. Not a hint of a stutter or a nervous jitter in her form.

"Shizune!" Hokage called out instead, turning her direction toward her office door. Her assistant slipped into her room as quiet as a ninja, bowed curtly, and briskly walked up to her side. Hinata watched how Shizune walked all the way until she positioned herself side-by-side with her Hokage _behind_ the Hokage desk, facing Hinata.

"Hello Hinata-san. I'm assuming I'm called here because you've agreed to be my understudy." Shizune's kind face said. The toy-like pet in her arms, Tonton, oinked a greeting as well.

Hinata bowed, "I am greatly honored. I look forward to working with you, sensei."

Shizune glanced at the Hokage and smirked. She didn't have to work on politeness on this kunoichi, Hinata had it down pat.

"We're going to start your training officially starting next week, Tuesday-five o' clock am, meet me at my office." Shizune instructed.

"A week from now?"

"Yes, your fellow peers will come in soon-and we'll be handing everyone their much needed Jounin vacation."

Hinata sighed in relief. So she _was_ right to assume that Jounin rookies were long overdue their first vacation.

"Before they start pilling in and messing my office up." Snorted the Hokage, "We have a favor to ask you."

Hinata nodded.

"We would like to keep your position as an _understudy_ a secret." The Hokage explained calmly. "Nobody is to know that I already have Naruto in mind to be my successor. I want people to think that I just gained another assistant. Toward the end of my term, however, I would like to see you take most of the responsibility of the office before Naruto takes charge. It is only when I reveal that Naruto is my official successor that you can inform your friends and family that you were actually an understudy, and will take over Shizune's position as the Hokage's vice."

Hinata nodded, it didn't make that much sense for the Hokage to be picking Naruto's secretary so _early_, but she had noticed that Shizune's workload was no laughing matter. Hinata realized it did make sense that the Hokage would need multiple assistants.

"Since you're Jounin, and a Jounin assistant for a Hokage is highly esteemed, I'm sure your father and your clan will not worry over the fact that you are not on constant Jounin missions to improve your rank."

Hinata nodded, she felt this way too.

"However, if they have a complaint over your new schedule, you will have to organize with Shizune a way to keep them happy. If the Hyuuga were to find out my plan of making you Naruto's secretary before Naruto's candidacy is official, they can do whatever it is in their power to make the transitional stage from Jounin to Hokage for Naruto, _very_ difficult. You must remember to inform us if you suspect _any_ sort of disturbance in your clan. Try to keep them happy-if this position isn't enough for them, we'll give you missions, if they seem fine-you keep your schedule here."

This made sense, and Hinata agreed with the Hokage's logic, she nodded and made a mental note of this. The Hyuuga elders did not want Naruto to be the next Hokage, they were afraid he would get involved in their clan politics.

"We also realized that you are heir to the Hyuuga clan...and we see this position as sort of a warm-up to what clan politics can be like. You can learn some very good leader-skills in this position." Shizune explained to Hinata. "If your father has any doubts, he can try and win a debate with me." Her eyes sparkled, "Then and only _then_ can he get you to quit being a Jounin assistant."

"But I doubt that it'll get that messy. In any case, welcome to the family, Hinata. You are now officially doomed to a life of papercuts, and ink-blots." The Hokage said in a dramatic tone. She then got up, and bowed to her. Shizune mirrored her Hokage's movements.

Hinata instantly shot up to her feet at the sudden gesture by two ninjas way above her rank and age, and bowed twice and thrice back. Her hair looked like a rumpled mess by the time she stood with her face facing the ground in a stable bowed position.

"N-no! The pleasure is all mine! Thank you, Hokage-sama! Thank you, Shizune-sama!" Hinata gushed.

* End Flashback *

((Rokudaime Era))

"Hokage-sama? Hokage-sama?" a distant voice was calling out. Naruto was staring at a vase on the far left side of his office, his mind was still reeling over the break up with Kurumi and the revelations she had left to dwendle on.

Naruto blinked. "What?"

"Hokage-sama, were you even listening?" sighed the voice of a tired sounding old friend of his. Yamato Taicho gave him a pitiful look.

"No...sorry." Naruto admitted slowly, as he pushed back his golden locks out from his forehead, skewing his forehead protector and revealing extremely tired looking eyes. "Didn't sleep much...last night."

"Girl problems?" Yamato guessed correctly, and Naruto scoffed but didn't try to lie. Yamato was unnaturally good at telling when people lied to him, and Naruto was an especially bad liar, he didn't need to be reminded of his lack of skills in the acting department in front of his old mentor. "Hokage-sama...I couldn't help but hear about your break up with your latest...lady friend."

Naruto snorted in response.

"Might I be of service?" Yamato offered. "I don't know much about women myself, but it does feel better to talk about it sometimes."

"We don't have time for my problems." Naruto sighed. "It's ok, I'm listening now, you were saying something about the new geographic locations for Sunagakure?"

Yamato Taicho sighed, "Yes, I was saying something along those lines a good twenty minutes ago...Hokage-sama, I think you may be a little tired for this sort of talk. I'll reschedule with Hinata to meet with you when your mind is good and clear." Yamato decided and started to reach toward the maps he had laid out on Naruto's desk, he rolled them up silently and Naruto reached up sluggishly to help. In a matter of seconds, Yamato Taicho made himself scarce, and soon a very upset Hinata stood in his place not a beat after he was gone.

"Hokage-sama...what was that?" Hinata asked.

"That?" Naruto gave her the look that told her to elaborate.

Hinata patiently unfolded the arms that were keeping her clipboard tightly pressed onto her chest and opted to place it down on his desk and bow her head to give him a very serious look. "Yamato Taicho gathered all of that information for you; it took him an entire week with a staff of both geographers _and_ experienced decoders to figure out the exact location the new hidden villages after the North-East Panther war." She explained all this calmly.

"I know what it _was_." Naruto pouted, but he did start feeling a little guilty.

"Oh, well I was covering it just in case you were still _totally_ out of it, like you were yesterday." Hinata explained shaking her head with worry. "So you must realize that it's important to stay awake when you're one of the first few people who gets to see the new maps of our continent?"

Naruto blinked and his back straightened.

"Are you mad at me?"

Hinata sighed and slumped her shoulders her arms falling limply to her sides. "No, I'm not mad." She frowned. "Worried, yes, but not mad! I know how stressed you've been...but it's been a good week now, Naruto-sama." Hinata said gently. "And work is piling up...and...well...I hate reminding you...but my three-day weekend is coming up...tomorrow...and I'm wondering if you'll be ok while Shikamaru takes care of my shift..."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Huh? Break-? Oh shit!" Naruto jumped up from his seat. "Shit-Hinata, I'm so sorry! I forgot!"

"Oh! It's nothing!" Hinata desperately started to wave her arms around herself like it was nothing, "It's really not a big deal. I had forgotten about it myself...but I did promise a few friends I'd see them this weekend...and...well, I'm considering canceling if we have to push your geography lessons to this Saturday..."

"Send Yamato back in here then! I'll get this done right now-go take your break starting today."

"Really?" Hinata looked shocked at the mere suggestion, yet she was starting to smile.

Naruto's eyes softened. "Yeah, of course. You earned it."

Hinata's face instantly split into the biggest smile. "You'll be ok?"

"Shikamaru's already been warned, hasn't he? We'll be fine." Naruto said guiding Hinata out toward the reception room. He noticed how bubbly she was at the prospect of taking a day off, and felt a little guilty, while at the same time giddy himself at the sight of how happy Hinata was. She hadn't taken a break since for a while now-it's been three months since the last time he could remember. She hadn't taken a break since the last time she came back from a mini-vacation and found Naruto _crying_ in fetal position under a pile of work that Shikamaru failed to organize.

"Right. Shikamaru-kun." Hinata nodded with a placid smile. "_He's not lazy at all_, he can handle it."

Naruto snickered when he heard her soft voice actually having a go at trying to sound sarcastic.

"I'll make sure that when you come back after your break, that everything will be in order." Naruto promised, his hand still resting on the back of her obi as they walked through his office doors.

"Will I come back to you crying in your office?" Hinata teased.

"If I'm crying, it's only because I'll have missed you." Naruto smirked. He only realized once he let it slip how...uh...romantic it could have sounded. He realized he was blushing when he automatically started to pull on the collar of his shirt to let some much needed air cool down his body.

Hinata laughed softly behind a dainty hand, not even glancing up at him to realize his most ridiculous red face. "Three whole days! How are you going to survive?"

"You laughed like that the last time, but it seriously wasn't a joke." Naruto whined pathetically, he froze when she reached over to lightly press a warm hand on his forearm.

"Relax, you've been in office for a good, what...it's been two years now? You're going to be fine, I was only teasing you." Hinata giggled softly and walked over to her desk, briskly leaving Naruto's side. She picked up her planner and a few of her personal belongings such as her favorite pen and a stray kunai biting into the top of her desk. She stuck everything carefully in her purse and gently laid down a list for the substitute assistant to look over.

"You...you got everything?" Naruto asked nervously. His palms got sweaty at the very sight of her leaving the office. She was always last to leave the office, even he went back home earlier than she did on normal days...it was weird being in a switched position.

"If Shikamaru makes my desk messy." Hinata said in her normally sweet voice, "Tell him I know how to make his life really, _really_ difficult." She then ducked her voice in a whisper that obviously Naruto wasn't supposed to catch, "I'll sneak caffeine into his system for an entire week so he can't get a decent nap."

Naruto laughed outright and watched when he saw Hinata go-but not before she stopped by a Yamato that was still gathering his maps in the reception area and politely ask him to go back into the Hokage office for round two.

For some reason, Naruto felt so distracted by the sight of her leaving, he just couldn't help but groan at the eager face of Yamato Taicho as he walked back into Naruto's office with his arm full of maps. He knew Hinata was going to bitch at him when she came back to office and realize she had to book poor Yamato Taicho into his exclusive Saturday schedule.

Yamato wasn't blind though, and caught Naruto sigh as he glanced over at Hinata's now empty desk.

"Can you call Shikamaru to take Hinata's place starting today?" Naruto asked Yamato, "After all this, of course?" he gestured toward the stupid looking maps.

"Yes, Hokage-sama, of course." Yamato Taicho glanced at the tired looking boy, "Are you all right? You look very...worn."

"I had my time off last week...why did I waste such precious time just sleeping on the couch?" Naruto asked himself out loud, almost forgetting Yamato was there as his audience. "I should have assigned myself a cool mission or something. It would have cleared my mind."

"Hokage-sama," Yamato said sternly, "It looks clear to me that you obviously need to talk about this."

"No way." Naruto muttered, grumpily. "I'm fine. Peachy. Open those maps and let's look at those...squiggles." he plopped down on the desk and propped his face in his hands, ready to pay some attention.

"Hokage-sama, I might not be in my proper place when I tell you this but...Hinata-san is a _very_ nice girl." Yamato Taicho said.

"Yeahhhh?" Naruto dragged out, wondering where this conversation was headed. He lifted a suspicious brow. "What are you on about?"

Yamato Taicho realized that Naruto was a little daft when it came to subtle hints like these, so he outright and said it, "I think you two would make a very nice couple."

"What?! Whoa, Yamato-Taicho, come on! Whoa man! Calm down. Whoa!" Naruto shouted and jumped to his feet, waving his arms about and even scooting back his desk a bit with a firm shove from his foot to distance himself from the observant eyes of his former mentor.

"I think _you_ should be the one calming down, Naruto-sama. It was a simple suggestion, no need to flip tables over it." Yamato snorted as he dumped his maps on Naruto's desk, and a few he propped up on the chair by his side. "Because if you don't make a move on her, I know a handful of men who have been trying...and you never know when they might succeed." He sent Naruto his infamous ghost-like stare, that still sent shivers up Naruto's spine.

"What?" Naruto scoffed. "Nuh_-uh_, nobody flirts with Hinata- I'd know! I see nearly _everyone_ in Konoha interact with her."

"No one flirts in front of you, no." agreed Yamato. "But once your door is closed and you're not looking, Hinata-san can her fair share of dashing suitors hovering by her side."

"Nuh-uh." Naruto denied, this time a little softer, and more child-like.

"Yes." Yamato shrugged. "Well, since you're not interested, it's not a pressing matter. Shall we move on?"

"Wait!" Naruto said, he was biting the nail on his thumb and was observing Yamato closely. "You ain't _lying_ to me right? Cause you can't lie to your Hokage! It's punishable by _death_."

"No it isn't." Yamato scoffed.

"How many guys are we talking?" Naruto asked in a harsh whisper, cupping his mouth with his hands.

"Who wants to know?" Yamato whispered back.

"YAMATO TAICHO! Your Hokage has asked you a question, damn it stop _fooling around_." Naruto ordered, smacking a firm hand on his desk and frowning.

"Well, the whole village knows that Juonji Hyuuga has his sight set on Hinata-san."

"Old news." Naruto said, relaxing a whole lot and waving it off. Juonji was also very shy and didn't have the guts to say anything to Hinata, for that Naruto was sure.

"Kakuzou Irie, he's been giving Hinata Hyuuga flowers."

"His family tends to the graveyards." Naruto said and felt another wave of relief knowing that Kakuzou, too, with his lanky arms and glasses that were too big for his face, would probably not step forward to ask Hinata out on a date, "The flowers are always meant for Hinata's _mom_."

"Keisuke Kaerumichi." Yamato finally supplied a name that made Naruto bristle.

"Eh? But...they broke up." Naruto blinked.

Keisuke was Hinata's boyfriend around the time that Naruto had gotten word that he was going to be the Hokage's successor. Keisuke was a great guy-the kind of guy that girls would brag about, and yet Hinata had always been strangely secretive about her romantic life. It wasn't until Keisuke and Hinata were broken up that Naruto even knew that they were together at all. And boy, did Naruto feel weird feelings then. Keisuke was a tall, well-built ANBU soldier with broad shoulders and a dimpled smile. He had wild brown hair that fell to his shoulders and a deep sexy voice. A classic heart-breaker type guy that actually had a decent head on his shoulders. Keisuke was also one of Kiba's oldest friends, and Naruto himself had met him a couple of times when he was younger and had thought he was an okay guy.

"Apparently that doesn't mean Keisuke still doesn't have it bad for Hinata-san. He still believes they'll get together again, and there are rumors saying they are, in fact, still together but it's kept on the down low so that Hinata-san's family will not intrude on their relationship for the second time." Yamato said. "Obviously you are very sheltered from this, Hokage-sama, this gossip has been around for quite some time."

"Yeah, well, gossip isn't fact." Naruto said, flustered. Keisuke always did say kind words to Hinata, and they did have a few private jokes that Naruto had eavesdropped several times that left him feeling a little empty inside.

"You look nervous."

"_YOU _look nervous!" Naruto retaliated childishly. "You ready yet? I'm going to die from boredom."

"Hey brat." a voice barged in, and Naruto gawked when his door was rudely opened while he was in the middle of a meeting. Standing outside was none other than the former Hokage, the Godaime Tsunade. "You're not busy right?" she asked, not even glancing at Yamato.

"Tsunade-sama! You can't barge in like that!" Shizune was right by the Hokage's side in an instant, just like the good old days, panicking over her master's behavior. "Naruto-kun might be in a meeting?"

"This is urgent." Tsunade waved off and walked in, and finally nodded toward Yamato in a silent apology, "Besides, the brat used to _barge in_ without knocking or without proper warning _all the time_. This is payback."

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune groaned. "Please, let's wait outside."

"Where is Hinata?" Tsunade asked, ignoring Shizune. "I didn't see her by her desk, and there are several people out in the reception who says they've made an appointment with you."

"Hinata's on her break." Naruto explained calmly and nodded in greeting toward Shizune. At least she had the decency to _treat him like the Hokage_. Unlike the former Hokage who still waltzed around as if she still owned the place.

"Ah, of course... She hadn't gotten one of those since forever." Shizune pinched her lips, obviously in disapproval.

"You overwork her, and she's going to up and leave one day." Tsunade warned.

"What do you _want_." Naruto snapped, irritated and moody beyond belief. Both Yamato and Tsunade were a combination that made his patience run thin...and it was already paper thin to begin with.

"I'll just...bye." Yamato sighed dejected as he gathered his maps quickly and fled the scene. Shizune shot him an apologetic look and a quick bow as he left and shut the door.

"That was _important_!" Naruto pointed dramatically toward his door it made a resound 'click' sound. "Shizune, can you tell him to come back?" he whined like a child, and kicked his feet as he looked over at the former assistant.

"Uh, hello? Does she look like she's _your_ assistant? No. She's mine. Hands off." Hokage snapped and grabbed Shizune's sleeve before she could blindly follow orders. "But seriously, yeah-can you cover for me while I'm talking to the twirp?" she asked. "And tell the people at the reception to come again when Hinata's here."

"Wait!" Naruto shouted, Tsunade finally pushed the final button. He was now up on his feet and glaring at them with his weight leaning on his desk, pointing another offended finger toward the former Hokage. "Are you patronizing me?"

Shizune bowed and muttered a 'Tsuande-sama' in acknowledgement before shutting the door.

"No I'm not. By the way I'm impressed you know that word, I guess that dictionary I gave you has come to good use." Tsunade said in a very petty tone. She took a seat on the small wooden chair that stood across from Naruto. Naruto wouldn't sit down as he crossed his arms and glared at her.

"I'm in trouble, aren't I?" Naruto figured it out. Tsunade already sounded accusing and angry; it was a matter of time before his eardrums would be blown to bits. He was able to catch onto these things quite quickly now that his main job was to _listen_.

"Big trouble." Tsunade hissed, "I heard about your latest girlfriend breaking up with you."

Naruto scoffed, "Are you here to give me girl advice too?" he turned around to face the potted plants he had assorted on the window sill, and mindlessly started to rub his thumb nail on one of the leaves. "Cause if you are, I wouldn't call that 'urgent'."

"This isn't advice, it's a warning. I've heard the rumors about why that latest girl broke up with you-and I'm here to tell you you're treading on _thin ice_ by not drowning out those rumors as _soon_ as you heard them."

"What rumors?" Naruto muttered, showing clear signs of disinterest.

"That you are head-over-heels over Hinata-your secretary."

Naruto whipped around and pinned Tsunade with a fierce gaze, "Are people actually saying that?"

"Yes." Tsunade glared back. "And you need to put a stop to it, you're ruining both your and Hinata's reputation-and I swear to god-that girl has worked her butt off to get where she is today so you better not ruin this for her."

"_Me_? I didn't do anything! They're flippin' _rumors_, Tsunade-no-baa-chan! Can't you see that?"

"Was your latest girl right when she said that you were _interested_ in Hinata?"

"More like _she_ had a thing for Hinata!" Naruto snapped back fiercely-"You know what she did? She up and-_threw_ Hinata on the ground and _tackled_ her-slobbered all over her face and bit her and stuff! I don't know what I ever saw in her." Naruto finished, in a pained voice as he looked away from Tsunade so she wouldn't see that underneath it all, he was just hurt that he had misjudged a girlfriend again.

"All in front of you?" Tsunade asked.

"Yeah!" Naruto said in a weird voice, as if that was _obvious_. "She was all 'do you wanna join us' afterwards, _fuck no_, I don't wanna join that-Hinata looked like she was having a heart attack."

"She wanted to see if you looked like liked what you saw, Naruto. It's classic Kunoichi style to wring information out of their men. Who was this girl?"

"Kurumi." Naruto supplied. He was back to fingering his plants, this time more carefully as not to hurt them. The other plant had a deep scar where his thumb had been rubbing it.

"The red head?" Tsunade recalled, "You have a thing for bright-haired women, don't you?"

When Naruto didn't give her a haughty reply back, Tsunade sighed, realizing she was really pushing it. He was already in a sour mood, and she could tell that he was also pretty tired.

"You _aren't_ in love with Hinata, right?" Tsunade asked in a careful voice.

Naruto turned around and gave her his poker face.

"No. I'm not." Naruto said.

Tsunade stared at him for a while and then she frowned, "Good, because you two will never work."

Naruto instantly looked annoyed, "Yamato Taicho said the opposite."

"Ya-_Yamato_? Why would he bother asking you about Hinata?" Tsunade's voice rose, "Have you been talking girl troubles to your ninja? The men that _work_ for you?"

"He simply _guessed_-I didn't say-"

"Why did he guess, though? Why was he able to guess you had a thing for Hinata? He doesn't listen to rumors and he only picks up on things he sees with his own eyes. Oh god, Naruto-Please, please, _please_, tell me you didn't just lie to me a second ago." Tsunade hissed, closing her eyes and clearly escalating in ire. "I will make you _hurt_ in places you don't even know about, so you better not have lied to me."

"N-no! NO!" Naruto quickly made a look of absolute horror and waved his arms frantically around his face. "I wasn't lying!"

"Lying to a Hokage is punishable by _death_."

"I'M the Hokage, though!" Naruto whined. "Besides I heard that's not true!"

"I'm the former Hokage! I know the law!" Tsunade thundered

"Nuh-uh!"

"Why did Yamato say-"

"I don't know! Yamato's _weird_!"

"Has any other ninja asked you about Hinata?"

"No!" Naruto held up in hands to show that he wasn't hiding anything. "Nothing, honest!"

"Good." Tsunade huffed and relaxed in her chair. "Because if you _did_ love her, and you _did_ make a move on her, Hinata will not respond. I'm certain that Hinata is already struggling with this newfound rumor that you're interested, and I think it's your responsibility to put it out."

"How do you put out a rumor like that, though?" Naruto accidentally plucked out another delicate leaf and sighed. "I'm not good at stuff like that."

Tsunade waved the question away, "Hinata doesn't love you, Naruto. I made sure to find that out before she took this job. I've spoken to her about the importance of being professional, and she took that order to heart-_you _though...make your own rules, are struggling to be professional, and simply follow orders _from_ your heart. You are a good and reliable Hokage because of these 'flaws', but Hinata's professionalism is making you an _outstanding_ Hokage. I know this will be hard for you to understand so I'll say this slowly. Stay. Away. From. Hinata." She punctuated her last bit with a tap of her manicured nail on her armrest. Naruto finally turned to stare at Tsunade, and she saw that pained look on his face. "If you want to keep her by your side, you're going to have to get over your little crush."

"Geez." Naruto finally wheezed through his tight chest, everything suddenly made no sense. He slowly sat down on his chair and took another long breath of air. "Is it that obvious? I mean...that's all it is though, right? A crush."

Tsunade's eyes widened and got up on her seat, this time being the one to look down at Naruto. "YOU LIED TO ME!"

Naruto stuck his fingers in his ears and whined. "Calm _down_ Tsunade-no-baa-chan. Everyone lies."

"I swear, Naruto..." she shook her fist at him, but paused. "So you do love her."

Naruto shrugged. "No? I dunno. Love is a pretty hefty word...but she is _pretty_ sweet." He said looking off into the distance. "I've never fallen for a girl like Hinata...she's too quiet, and polite...and...well...out of my league."

"She is. So you should give up." Tsunade said, looking extremely nervous.

"Yeah." Naruto said, his mind and voice seemed like they were in dreamland. "Yeah, I know."

"Naruto?" Tsunade reached over and grabbed Naruto by the face-squishing his cheeks together. "Look at me, Naruto."

Naruto did, albeit reluctantly.

"You don't love her." Tsunade said. "I knew this was a possibility...you two working together for a while in close proximity but trust me...you're simply _flattered_ that she's stuck by you this long."

Naruto gave off an offended snort, but in this position, where his cheeks were mashed up together, he made the noise that resembled an angry pig.

"You spend more time with _her_ than anybody, you're realizing how nice she is, and maybe you've finally noticed that she's got some nice curves on her-" Naruto's eyes wandered again as he started to daydream on that little tidbit, "BUT" Tsunade shook his face in the grip of her hands and forced his eyes back on her angry gaze. "It's not going to happen. You two are now an iconic symbol of our entire country, and the council of elders are looking for ways to tarnish your image so that they could replace you with one of THEIR candidates for Hokage, I've mentioned to you before that Hinata's keeping you in this office not only because she's a Hyuuga and she's good at organizing, her father's in the council and he wants to keep her in this high ranking position. If you so much as _look _at her differently in front of the council, her father will make her quit."

Naruto's eyes widened and he tried to shake his head, but Tsunade forced him to nod up in down as she kept a steady grip on his jaw.

"Yeah, she'll up and _leave_. So you better not lay _one flirty word on her_, and if I _ever_ hear of these rumors starting again-I better hear that you're dating another red-headed someone soon after to drown out those rumors right away." Tsunade hissed. "I'm not trying to punish you, Naruto-you just have to be patient. Once you're stronger than the council I don't care WHO you're dating, but as of right now-I want to keep you in office, and so does Hinata!"

She let go of Naruto roughly-shoving his face away. Naruto rubbed his cheeks and glared petulantly at the top of his desk. He looked exactly like a child that was severely scolded, and acted the part too.

"Well...then do you know if she still likes me?" Naruto asked softly. "She did when we were..." his voice trailed off, realizing he didn't remember exactly when she had confessed to him, or even when he finally realized that she had liked him when they were younger.

"She's grown up." Tsunade sighed, "Besides, all of those nervous habits you used to see when she was around you? Blushing? Fidgeting? Poking her fingers? You notice how they're gone?"

Naruto nodded, already looking extremely sad.

"It's because she doesn't feel that way about you anymore." Tsunade explained calmly. "You have to understand...and Hinata's not one of those girls you can be persistent with...she really cares about you and your career...don't do this to her."

Naruto kept that pouty frown up, and didn't even make a move to acknowledge Tsunade anymore. He had his arms firmly crossed, and his chin resting on his chest.

"Stop acting like you can't have what you want, Naruto." Tsunade finally said in a tired voice. "You've got everything you've dreamed of. The role as Hokage, respect, honor..."

"But what about _love_, Baa-chan." Naruto cut her off. "Why can't I have that too?"

"You can." Tsunade said gently.

Naruto sighed, knowing full well what she was going to say next.

"But not with Hinata."

* * *

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 2

The Fifth and Sixth Jidai

To LeeRocks: Hey, thanks for the critique, I understand that the story is pretty far-fetched and unbelievable for a lot of people, and the adults 'spelling it out' for both Naruto and Hinata that they can't see each other may seem like I'm writing a story about high schoolers (yikes) but it's also something that a lot of Office Ladies in Japan have to get drilled on when they take a job. It may seem unbelievable in western countries, but I'm writing these stories based on the Naruto-verse, and the Naruto-verse pulls on a lot of Japanese traditions and mannerisms. In Japan, it's a big no-no to have romantic relationships in a business setting, so people constantly remind each other and/or giving love advice anyway in a pretty normal routine. If you doubt it-check out the THOUSANDS of Korean/Japanese dramas out there that center around this concept...because that's honestly where I got the idea.

As for Hinata's reaction to Kurumi's kiss being extremely unrealistic, I totally agree-but the point of me writing about Hinata before she becomes Naruto's secretary is for everyone to realize that she's abandoned love, and for Hinata that's a major part of her character, and thus-she's not really a 'sane' person anymore, she's a little broken. And yes-Tsunade and Shizune may be to blame, but I want their position to be that they truly think Hinata's becoming a better shinobi without the crutch of her crush. This is a universe where shinobi duty comes first and foremost, just like in Japan work comes before personal life in many situations, I wanted that same burdensome and DRAMATIC tension between the characters and their professional and personal lives. Tsunade and Shizune think they're doing a major favor to Hinata...and I do want Hinata to start thinking like that too by the time she's the Hokage's assistant. Thanks for your critque though, I really mean it-it opened my eyes to some of the things that people may be feeling frustrated with, but I gotta say I _want_ people to feel that. I want them to feel like the reasons for keeping two people apart because of professionalism is stupid and 'contrived'. Lol. I would love it if you kept critiquing this story! Thanks!

Also Note:

This chapter is inspired by a NaruHina sketches that I drew this summer, so again-if you wanna check out art while you read this fic, I highly recommend checking out the Archive Of Our Own version (The link is on my profile page, click my penname) Happy face! Yay!

* * *

((Godaime Era))

* flashback 3 years ago-Godaime Hokage's second to last year in office *

Hinata sighed in absolute bliss.

It was a wonderful day.

She got a new job that she could actually see herself _living_ in.

She got her vacation.

And currently, she was enjoying both of the treats she had promised herself.

A day out in the sun, and a Cinnamon-bon-bon Sunday Extreme.

She relaxed on the outdoor whicker chair that her favorite desert shop had fixed outside of it's restaurant window, and took her second bite of her sweet treat, a chunk of her favorite pastry sitting on the very top.

"Mmmm." Hinata moaned ecstatically and her toes curled. She sounded a little perverse, she was quite sure, but she didn't care. She was already planning on taking a _nap_ later on today, preferably on a remote, undisturbed rooftop somewhere, and then wake up at a leisurely hour to join her other Jounin rookies on their big vacation celebration.

She couldn't remember a time she felt this happy.

Oh wait, she could, she felt this happy when she heard the great news yesterday.

_Naruto was going to be Hokage_.

She sighed, thinking about how he would look in that infamous Hokage robe. Most definitely handsome, but also mature, strong, mysterious, deep...the list went on. She also realized that this was _exactly_ the kind of thoughts that would get her fired in her current dream-job.

"Knock it off, Hinata." Hinata whispered to herself, "Concentrate on _other_ things." She focused again on her Sunday, and took another bite, and she instantly felt gratified.

"Well if it isn't Doe-Eyes."

Hinata recognized that nickname, and instantly looked up to spot the dark haired, eerily smiling boy. It was none other than team seven's add-on member, Sai.

"Sai-san." Hinata sat up on her chair and blushed. She felt like she was caught expressing her love for her ice cream treat. "How are you?"

"Busy." Sai said, "I just came back from a mission."

Hinata nodded. "I see that." she noted the kunai that was still stuck to his shoulder. "Do you...want help with that?"

"Oh? This?" Sai looked over his shoulder at the intrusive object. "I forgot it was there."

"Here, let me." Hinata kindly offered, she set her spoon down and got up from her comfy seat. She warmed her hands with healing chakra, and gestured for Sai to turn around. She had already gotten her healing balm from her back pocket and dabbed a few drops on the tip of her fingers.

Sai complied wordlessly, and Hinata put pressure around the kunai, and pressed it out like it was some sort of black head. The weapon slid out rather easily, and Hinata was able to assume that it didn't knick any bones while inside of Sai. Sai still hissed in pain just as Hinata fully removed the kunai and quickly sealed the wound with a few dabs of her healing balm. She knew it was a slap-dash job since the wound was under Sai's jacket that he didn't bother to remove and the healing balm would only kill off bacteria at this point, but she knew that once Sai reached the Hokage towers, the medic ninjas on the second floor would spot him and heal him before he stepped into the seeing the Godaime.

"Thank you, Doe-Eyes." Sai said with that eerie smile. Hinata handed the kunai that was stuck to his back to Sai.

"Were you on a solo mission?" Hinata asked. She was wiping some of the blood off of her hands with a handkerchief she kept in her back pocket.

"Oh, no. I was tagging alongside Dickless and his Genin's third C-rank mission. One of Dickless's Genin planted a kunai bomb that promptly went off at a rather unexpected moment. I was able to deflect most of it. Most." Sai said rather calmly, he didn't seem embarrassed at the fact that he was caught in the crossfire of a Genin's kunai bomb. Hinata knew only the proudest of ninja could admit such a feat and looked at Sai with some newfound respect.

"Wow, Naruto-kun's kids are sure growing up fast. Their third C-rank..._already_." Hinata still found it strange to hear about Naruto and his Genin team.

Everyone still had a hard time believing it that Naruto thrived in his position as Jounin instructor. He already had his kids for a year, if Hinata remembered correctly. She had even seen him in last year's Chuunin exams, for she had to be there as emotional support for her sister. Naruto was sitting in the Jounin-instructor booth when the final battles were taking place. Hinata remembered recalling how strange he looked sitting next to seasoned Jounin instructors. Tense and serious. He had his arms crossed and his eyebrows knit.

"Are they ok, by the way? Naruto-kun and his Genin?" Hinata asked in concern.

"Dickless is as good as ever." Sai answered in a friendly manner. "One of his Genin got hurt, but nothing serious. A twisted ankle."

"Ouch." Hinata winced empathically. "Poor thing."

"Indeed. Dickless wont stop fretting over her. It's like he's afraid she's going to loose her leg. He's already at the hospital, I'm guessing."

Hinata smiled warmly. "He's a good sensei."

"Or a reckless one, you pick. He was supposed to report to Hokage first thing as long as his kids weren't in danger of death. You don't go brush off the Hokage for a twisted ankle."

"Well, one has different priorities." Hinata defended Naruto, as she always did.

"Were you on a date?"

Hinata backed away at the simple, and harmless question. "Um, no?"

"Oh of course, you don't go on dates. You're still hung over Dickless."

Hinata blinked.

"No pun intended." Sai just _had_ to add. Hinata didn't notice the sexual innuendo until he had to underline it for her.

Hinata suddenly had the urge to run. A fantasy she had when she was cornered against a very uncomfortable conversation. Since up and leaving a conversation out of the blue was ruder than Sai's previous accusation in Hinata's book. Hinata would simply look unnervingly frozen once she fantasized about running or hiding from an unwelcome conversation. Unfortunately this was the exact look and behavior of a deer caught in headlights, and she often had shown her shocked stupor to Sai many times already.

Thus her nickname, 'Doe-Eyes'.

"S-Sai-san, I'm afraid I don't know what you mean." Hinata tried playing dumb. "I am not interested in Naruto-kun that way."

"Interested in what way?"

Hinata felt like running now. Really. She felt like running. If her eyes hadn't caught sight of her tasty treat in her peripheral vision, and she had to remind herself that running away from _him_ would only make her seem like a _bigger_ weirdo, she stiffly turned around to look into the eyes of the most _beautiful_ man on earth.

Uzumaki Naruto had grown into a good looking man, no doubt about it. Of course Hinata was bias to think that his hair was more golden than the rays of the sun, or that his cerulean blue eyes could pierce the hearts of thousands. The biggest changes the jinchuuriki had gone through since he reached Jounin status a full four years earlier than Hinata, was his height has shot up like a bamboo shoot. The baby fat that was still clinging desperately on his face even after he came back from his training with Jiraiya had long gone, and now in it's stead, one could see the distinct lines of a masculine jaw. The biggest change by far was his attire, long gone were the days he wore his orange and blue and black. The Jounin instructor before Hinata in all his 183cm (6ft) glory was wearing the customary navy turtleneck and uniform Chuunin vest. He, however, did keep the necklace that Tsunade gave him and proudly exposed it between his open vest.

But the thing that absolutely done Hinata over these past few years was the fact that Naruto never failed to give her the biggest smile he could muster.

Amazing. A row of nice pearly whites, a flash of his gums, the way his eyes crinkled and his cheeks pinched...

"Na-na-Naruto-kun!" Hinata stuttered out of habit. She was getting admittedly better at keeping that tremor out of her voice these days, but Naruto brought out the _worst_ habits in her.

"Hey! Hinata, I couldn't help but overhearing..." Naruto said his hands in his pockets. "What're you two talking about?"

"N-nothing!" Hinata waved her arms pathetically around her as if swatting invisible flies. She wanted to run. She wanted to run. She wanted to _hide_.

"Hinata-sama!" "Hinata-nee!" voices called out, and Hinata blinked down at the two young genin that had been standing right beside Naruto the entire time.

Hinata finally shook the shock from her face and replaced it with a kind smile.

"Oh! Kuma-kun! Taishi-kun! How are you?" she was glad for the distraction.

"Oh! It's Hinata-nee-san!" the genin boy named Taishi called out enthusiastically. "Hey, is Sai _bothering_ you?"

"N-no." Hinata glanced over at Sai who already had his eerie, 'innocent' looking smile on his face. "He's just being...his normal self."

"Normal." Snorted the two genin.

Hinata's eyes quickly looked up toward the grinning face of the Uzumaki, and took a step back when he took a sudden step toward her.

"Talking about me, eh? Pretending you ain't said nothing, aye? I didn't know you were a _gossip_, Hinata!" Naruto teased, taking another step and seeing her take a trembling step back.

"I wasn't! I would never!" Hinata squeaked, she didn't like getting teased by Naruto. It was happening a lot more now, for some odd reason. He was getting better at making girls flutter and blush, with his teasing antics. Hinata knew of Naruto's behavior around women. He was starting to become a natural flirt. Jiraiya would definitely be proud.

"Leave her alone, sensei!" shouted the boy named Kuma.

"Yeah!" shouted the other boy, but didn't make any move to touch their sensei who wasn't listening as he took another daring step forward. Hinata's backside suddenly hit the table that still held her creamy treat, and realized she was backed up, with Naruto directly in front of her. He was blocking all paths, and if she suddenly fainted-she would get a hair-full of icecream.

Please don't faint. Please don't faint. Please don't faint. Hinata chanted in her head as she saw Naruto smirk in front of her.

"You're not interested in me?" Naruto smirked, he obviously heard the conversation earlier.

"I am not!" Hinata found her voice. "I mean-I like you as a _f-f-friend, _but...nothing m-more." She lied with a very bad straight face. Sai had dropped his smile and was giving her a rather disbelieving look in her peripheral vision. It was the most natural 'Are you kidding me' look Sai had ever pulled.

"Humph!" Naruto pouted, while the genin behind him pointed and laughed mockingly. Naruto was actually rather easy to lie to about these things, Hinata had to remember. She sighed, and thanked how dense he was to the gods. "You could at least make me look good in front of my genin, Hinata! They don't believe that I'm a lady's man at all!" He said, looking proud as he adjusted the collar of his Chuunin vest.

_Stop that_. Hinata thought in her head as she saw how gorgeous he looked with that smug grin. She hated herself for swooning! She was twenty, for god's sake, a full grown _adult_. Legal! She shouldn't be swooning over the likes of a little haughty grin from a man who was just the most beautiful man on earth. Ugh! And now she was sure she was turning into a bright red tomato...she was blushing so hard.

"Naruto-sensei can barely get Sakura-san to agree on a date with you, you think that _you're_ good enough for Hinata-sama?" Kuma asked incredulously.

"Hinata-san is _way_ beyond your league. Like. Leagues beyond." Added the other genin, Taishi, suddenly finding his way to Hinata's side. "I, on the other hand, come from the esteemed Azumachi clan." The young man winked over at Hinata and offered a dashing grin, "Hey, how's it going?" he leaned on the table and gave her a smug little nod of the head. Hinata even noticed his eyes flashed up and down her figure. She hadn't seen a _twelve_-year-old boy do this yet, so she naturally thought it was _adorable_.

Hinata put a hand to her lips and suppressed a girly giggle at the silly boy's antics.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Naruto snapped. "Who taught you how to flirt like that?"

"You're quite good." Sai said, joining the fun. "I think Doe-Eyes is blushing," he had to add, drawing attention to the Hyuuga heiress's blush. Hinata waved a hand in front of her face while the other pressed itself firmly on her lips.

"Stop joking, Sai-san!" she murmured between her lips.

"Yeah, Hinata-sama is only humoring you." Kuma suddenly appeared on Hinata's _other_ side. "Hinata-sama, you should stay this way forever, untouched by slobbering men." Hinata looked down at her free hand as Kuma grabbed it. "Lovely maiden."

Hinata giggled again. These two were just too _cute_.

"Heeeey!" whined Naruto. "How did you guys get so good at this?"

"Hey! Stop _shoving!" _Kuma snapped over at his other teammate. Hinata had seen Taishi try to kick the other boy away from her.

"Let _go_ of her." Taishi shoved him out of the way.

"B-boys." Hinata stuttered, they were actually escalating to a full-on fight already. It was no longer a game to them anymore when Kuma shoved Taishi back for the previous assault.

"Hey, hey, hey, knock it off you two!" Naruto snapped and picked the boys up by the collar as easily as one would pluck a bag of oranges from the food market. "Geez, it's embarrassing." He effectively made them feel inferior as he kept them up and off the ground.

"You _started_ it sensei!" snapped Kuma, still kicking wildly as Naruto backed away from Hinata to keep her out of the two kid's line of fire.

"PUT ME DOWN! THIS IS EMBARASSING!" scowled the other genin. "Do you know who I am? I'm a noble from the Azumachi clan!"

"Put a cork in it, ya crazy kids." Naruto snapped, and then turned to Hinata with an apologetic smile. "Sorry about these two, they can't help themselves when they see a hot lady."

Hinata blushed at being called a _hot lady_ by none other than her ultimate crush.

"Um...it's not a problem. They're cute."

"Cute." The two boys chorused, instantly calming down and stared at Hinata with wide eyes. "TAKE THAT BACK HINATA-SAMA/NEE!"

Hinata giggled again. Those two were already starting to talk in unison.

"Shut up." Naruto shook them once, and they instantly bit their tongue. The two genin quickly took to glaring daggers at each other while still under the grip of their sensei. Naruto finally put them down, and put his large hands on each of their heads-his hands were affectively keeping the two boys away from each other.

"I heard about Akari-chan. I'm very sorry." Hinata quickly changed the subject. "Is she ok?"

"Oh, the boss took her to the hospital. I'm sure she's ok now." Sighed Naruto.

Hinata paused.

"The boss?" Hinata blinked.

"I'm a clone. Yeah." The man in front of her easily revealed.

Oh. Not the original. Yet it still didn't stop Hinata from blushing, strangely, as she looked at the clone of her crush. It was practically just a duplicate of Naruto, after all. A copy.

"So...the original Naruto took her to the hospital." Hinata smiled at how sweet that was, "That's really sweet of him."

"Thanks." Shrugged the Naruto in front of her. "I try."

"He just wants to flirt with Sakura-san at the hospital." Spat Kuma, shaking out of the glaring contest with his teammate and opted to glare back up at the clone of his teacher.

Hinata sighed, that _did_ sound like Naruto.

"Yeah, the original sensei just doesn't want to deal with paperwork from the Hokage and write reports. He's using you to do all his dirty work." Accused the other genin pointing at the clone.

"Eh, someone has to do it." Shrugged the clone, unaffected. "I'm still a part of him, he'll get the message from the Hokage after I'm dismissed."

"What if we just make him disappear now?" Kuma asked his comrad.

"Yeah, then we can tattle on the Hokage." Taishi snickered.

"Don't you dare." Snorted the clone. "You can't even get one hit on me anyway."

"I bet we can!" Taishi said enthusiastically.

"Gotta catch me first." Naruto said casually, and before Hinata knew it, a gust of wind flew in from nowhere. She blinked once, and saw that the Naruto clone was gone. Taishi and Kuma gasped, slightly disoriented as they were suddenly dropped and left behind.

"Darn you sensei!" Taishi immediately ran off toward the direction of the Hokage Towers.

"Good bye, Hinata-sama." Kuma shouted, waving goofily as he followed his teammate. Hinata watched as Taishi tripped him only after three steps. The two started a heated debate as they both ran back to the towers.

Hinata noted that it was just her and Sai again.

"I hope you get over your infatuation soon." Sai said rather calmly. Hinata glanced at him as he rubbed his sore shoulder. "I believe my other teammate is thinking of actually accepting Dickless to be her partner, soon."

Hinata knew exactly which 'teammate' Sai was talking about, and felt herself zone out and nod. She had been prepared for this all her life. After Naruto hadn't given up on Sakura even after the grand shinobi war, she realized it was a matter of time until Sakura agreed to his insistent proposals.

"Yes...I know, already."

Sai suddenly did an uncharacteristic thing, and put a hand on Hinata's shoulder in an act of empathy. She snapped out of her zoned-out mode and looked over at him.

"I'm guessing you recently received your Jounin break." Sai said, surprising her yet again that day. He was actually quite observant. She hadn't even known that Sai knew of her Jounin commencement.

Hinata nodded. "There's a party tonight at the large barbeque place. Chouji is supposedly paying."

"I wasn't invited." Sai said matter of factly.

Hinata smiled. "You are now."

"Can I invite Dickless?" Sai asked.

"Sure, I don't see why not."

"And Ugly."

"Please do." Hinata smiled kindly, familiar with Sai's nicknames.

"Ok." Sai said, back to giving that emotionless, eerie smile. "I should attend this social gathering. I'm getting a hang of being a party animal."

Hinata knew that Sai was actually attempting a _joke_, and found it rather sweet. "I'll see you at the Karaoke bar?" She joked back pathetically with a meek shrug.

"I will be there, or I'll be square."

Hinata smiled at the really cheesy line, and took it for another Sai-joke. "See you later then, Sai-san."

"Doe-eyes." He bowed and made himself scarce.

When Hinata turned back around to get back to her relaxing first day off of Jounin-duty, she gasped in horror at the sight of her liquefied Sunday, turned over and spilling it's contents after Naruto flew away in a gust of wind.

* end flashback *

* * *

((Rokudaime Era / Present Time))

Naruto panted as he ran through the same warm up again at a faster pace. He grinned when he froze in his hardest stance, feeling his muscles _burn_ in a way it hadn't in weeks. He was afraid he was getting rusty being cooped up in the office, but he had been able to work out and keep his shape every day thanks to Hinata's organization. Since the last few weeks was hectic, he found that it was harder for him to get free time to work his muscles.

"Hey sensei! Looks like you started without us!" shouted the voice of his team. He relaxed and flipped back onto his feet. He grabbed a towel by his side and lightly brushed his neck as he caught sight of three figures leisurely walking up toward the training ground.

"You guys are late." Naruto barked. The three instantly picked up their speed, and stood at attention before him. His genin team were no longer little kids, they had recently graduated to Chuunin just a year ago. Standing tall and proud were Kuma, Taishi, and Akira, his students. He had them under his care since they were nothing but little sprouts from the Academy, they didn't know how to climb on trees, or concentrate their chakra, or even last a minute with him in the taijutsu department. But now he was proud to say his students have grown just as much as he had in the three years.

Akari, who was known as the little 'fairy princess', showed Naruto what it _really_ meant to be a cry-baby kunoichi. Akari was known for her girly attire, her lack of preparation for basic missions, and her _lack_ of eyebrows and baby-like pigtails that she sported on either side of her head. She whined and sobbed and clung to Naruto as if he was her daddy the moment she realized he was her new mentor. She was a sweetheart though, and was constantly looking for approval and new role models in Naruto's friends. She was currently trying to get Sakura to teach her the arts of medic-nin. It was not a secret that Akari wished and strived to be strong like Haruno Sakura.

Kuma, the loveable and huggable, had also grown to be the strongest out of his three kids. He was a fast and agile fighter. He still wore those silly hats that had the fake bear-ears sewn on the top, and a big bulky jacket that covered his entire hands. He was first very unenthusiastic about being a ninja, but he had changed the most in character, as he had suddenly realized that he had a knack for ninjutsu as long as he had a good teacher. He was probably the student that takes after Naruto the most.

Lastly it was Taishi, the cool little rich boy. He grew up to be a very quick-minded Chuunin that specialized in genjutsu, something that Naruto's old friend Sasuke was known for. A specialist from kumogakure had offered to take Taishi on as a student, but Taishi decided to stay with his team-something that Naruto was unsure was a good idea. Taishi was always afraid to become the 'Sasuke' of Naruto's team, and though he acted arrogant and haughty 97% of the time, he secretly was afraid of disappointing anybody.

Naruto stared at his students and smiled.

"I only have..." he looked at his wrist watch. "Two hours to see how much you've improved in your taijutsu since last week. Let's make this count."

"Only two hours?" cried Kuma, offended. "Why so short? Did you flunk out on a few meetings?"

"No." Naruto sighed. "Hinata's out on her break, and the office has kinda...crumbled without her. I'm a little behind."

Taishi sighed, "Well with just two hours...we're going to just have forty minutes each. Row sham bow to see who's first!" he shouted quickly, obviously to throw his other two teammembers off. However, they were all fast and used to Taishi's tricks.

The three kids quickly chorused "ROW SHAM BO!"

"Yes!" Akari threw up her peace sign. "Naruto-sensei! I'm first!"

"Just hurry _up_." Whined Kuma.

"You two don't dilly-dally-spar while you wait." Naruto ordered.

"Aw man." Taishi muttered. "I'm so bored of sparring with Kuma." He was suddenly tackled by said teammate and the two started wrestling on the ground. Akari and Naruto watched with bored expressions before turning to one another.

"Okay, girlie, let's see what you got."

"Look over there! It's Sakura-san!" Akari suddenly shouted pointing. Naruto frowned, and turned his gaze.

"Nuh-uh...OW!" Naruto reeled in shock when he felt an attack coming, and dodged just in the knick of time.

"Oh poo." Akari whined, she was already in fighting stance. "I thought that would work."

Naruto looked thoroughly annoyed and spat on the ground. "Akari, as much as I'm proud that you've become a dirty fighter like your two teammates..." he heard his other two students shout 'hey!' in the background, "This is Taijutsu practice. You shouldn't resort to cheap tricks."

"I resent that, sensei!" Akari smirked, "It worked, I wouldn't call that a cheap trick...especially since it worked on a Hokage."

Naruto smirked back. "Don't think I'll take it easy on you just because you're a girl."

"Now why would you ever think I'll think that?" her voice suddenly appeared from behind him. Naruto did a front flip, and landed a good distance away before dashing into a blank spot and catching two attacks with his fists, and throwing his student roughly back. She stumbled, and fell onto her bum.

"Aw!" she cried, offended.

"Get up." Naruto barked.

Akari sniffed.

"And don't cry." Naruto warned, feeling anxious.

But Akari's lips wobbled, her eyes started to glance around, and her chest was heaving. Naruto immediately started to panic, he couldn't handle another round of Akari's tears-last week was enough to last a lifetime, seriously-he looked around as if any stray teddy bears would suddenly pop out of the ground.

Something did pop out of the ground, but it wasn't a teddybear.

"HA! Tricked ya!" Akari shouted as she barged out of the ground and kicked Naruto toward the chest. Her eyes widened when he caught her before she could make the blow, and he used her force to throw her in the opposite direction. This time she made a rather nasty looking tumble all the way on the other side of the training field. Naruto slapped his forehead for forgetting to control himself.

"Akari!" Taishi shouted.

"Akari-chan!" Kuma ran toward his teammate who was picking herself slowly up from the ground.

"Don't." Naruto commanded. "She's a tough girl. She can fight on her own."

Akari huffed and got up. "That was mean, sensei!"

"It's _taijutsu_ practice Akari. No bunshin. Just Taijutsu. Or do you want me to ask Rock Lee to train you again?"

The three all paled.

"Stop using bunshin, Akari!" shouted her other teammate Taishi.

"Yeah! Fight like a man! Er-I mean..."

Akari snapped her head toward her two boys and glared. "Can you two just be quiet for a bit?"

The two sucked in their lips.

"Thanks." Akari huffed and fell back to a fighting stance. "Okay, sensei. No more tricks. I'm ready."

"Don't cry." Naruto warned.

"Please, sensei. I'm Chuunin now." Akari sniffed indignantly.

The par ended rather normally, however. Akari didn't end up crying, but came close when she fell on her face when Naruto knocked her off her feet.

"I _hate_ Taijutsu training!" she wailed as she grabbed her bleeding nose and whined toward the heavens. Kuma took hold of her arms and dragged her to a safe area in the training grounds. Once Kuma was distracted with his other teammate, Taishi slipped in to take over the next open spot available for taijutsu training. He was the worst at hand-to-hand combat, so he actually didn't cheat like Akari did, and even got a compliment sprinkled over him when his forty minutes were done. Taishi huffed and sat back in his spot and started to laboriously wipe sweat off his brow.

"Who's next?" Naruto asked, looking at his two students.

"Oh! Me! Me!" Kuma jumped up excitedly, waving his arms about.

Taishi scoffed. "Sometimes I wonder if you act like an idiot on purpose..."

"Hey." Naruto scolded lightly, but was grinning. He always liked the playful teammate banter, it reminded him of the simpler days...

"Ok! Ready sensei?" Kuma appeared in front of him quite eagerly.

"You're eager." Naruto frowned and clenched his fists, ready to fight.

"Well, I have this really cool move... I've been _dying_ to show you." Kuma snickered.

"Ready?" Naruto countered, crouching into his stance.

"GO!" Kuma zipped toward him in lightening speed. Naruto jumped out of the way, and fell back into stance toward the spot where he felt Kuma's presence. He was surprised when Kuma had his back turned toward his sensei.

"Kuma! Come on, look alive." Naruto sighed, and relaxed.

Kuma turned around and grinned.

Naruto frowned, but not until he finally felt it-a _shadowclone_-wrap his arms around Naruto's neck.

Wait-no...it wasn't Kuma's arms.

Naruto broke free from the grasp and took a step before his face turned an inflamed red.

"My new OIROKE-NO-JUTSU!" Kuma crowed, victoriously. "HA! I've _perfected_ it!"

Naruto though, was frozen in his spot. There before him, holding onto his arm and smiling up at him, was a innocent looking copy of his personal assistant, Hinata. What made Naruto surprised was not only her proximity and the picture-perfect likeness of Hinata, but also she was fully clothed and almost looked natural...and real.

"You _idiot_." Snapped Taishi, looking bored as he munched on a plum he had brought with him to the training ground. "Oiroke-no-jutsu is supposed to be a clone of a sexy woman. Scantily clad and stuff. Hinata-san isn't...that."

"Just _wait_." Kuma sighed. "It gets good."

The clone in front of Naruto smiled tenderly and took a step up from Naruto. Naruto took a step back and spoke over his shoulder, trying to control his beating heart.

"Ok, Kuma, haha, funny joke. This is supposed to be _Taijutsu_ practice."

"Come on, sensei. We all know you're leagues beyond our skill of taijutsu, it's not fair. I'm just leveling the playing field." Kuma said calmly, not breaking his jutsu.

"W-w-why Hinata?" Naruto breathed out, not meaning to get heard, but Kuma heard anyway.

"Good question, Sensei. You see-I realized that the most _intoxicating_ sexiness can come from something that is _secretively_ sexy...everyone has their weird quirk, mine happens to be seeing women in their kimono _undressing themselves_. I used Hinata-san as a model, since she's always wearing a kimono and so prim and proper."

Naruto loudly gulped. His student was right! Who would have thought Kuma would perfect this jutsu? It was...unbelievably powerful. Naruto couldn't look away.

The copy of Hinata suddenly put her hands over her obi, and undid the first string. It even made a purposefully loud 'snap' noise as she pulled it off of her. She kept that innocent look on her face as she stared up at Naruto. Naruto noticed how even her lips looked exactly like Hinata's. The way they puckered when she was concentrated...he felt himself lick his lips.

"Ew, Kuma...this is so perverted." Akari said in the sidelines.

"Yeah, you're wasting time!" Taishi shouted. "Attack him now while he's distracted."

The clone of Hinata pulled at her obi, and undid it. Naruto took a shaky step back, and waved his arms. "N-no! Don't do that!" he cried out. "Kuma! Knock it off! This isn't Hinata!"

"Well _duh_ it's not Hinata." Snorted Kuma.

Naruto couldn't look away, and just when the clone wrapped one of her slim hands around the collar of her kimono to pull it apart, flashing just a modest amount of cleavage and the definite frill of a girly bra before Kuma released his jutsu and a cloud of smoke poofed her out of existance. Kuma then quickly found an opening and punched Naruto in the gut, but the man barely keeled over. In fact, he was still stunned over the short-lived peep show.

"HA! How did you like _that_?" Kuma asked, his fist still embedded in Naruto's stomach.

Naruto punched Kuma to the heavens in one brutal upper cut.

"WHYYYyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" Kuma's voice faintly called out as he shot up into the atmosphere.

Naruto turned toward his other two students, his face red as a tomato. "You guys saw _nothing_." He huffed and turned on his heel.

"Was...Naruto-sensei bleeding?" Akari asked Taishi.

"Hey! Since Kuma's session ended early can I have another go?" Taishi called out toward his sensei. Akari was noticed the twinkle in the sky indicating that her teammate was ready to fall back down to earth, and started to run toward the direction his body would be found.

"I'll give you a private session tomorrow. I'm calling it quits today." Naruto shouted over his shoulder and distanced himself quickly from the training ground. A hand over his nose, the Hokage quickly ran out of the training field, totally forgetting that his cloak and his shirt was back at the training field until he was in a residential zone of Konoha. His nose was still trickling wet, messy, blood. He hadn't felt so damn embarrassed in his life, he always made fun of the old geezers that fell for his oiroke-no-jutsu when he was a kid...who would ever think he would fall for it himself!

"Hokage-sama!" a voice, that was unmistakably Hinata, shouted from above him.

Naruto looked up, and in an apartment looking down at him, was none other than his secretary. Her hair, that was usually in a neat up-do was free, and was flowing around her as she looked down at him.

"What _happened_?" she called out toward him, distressed.

"Hinata." Naruto sniffed, he lowered his hand and Hinata noticed his state and gaped.

"I leave your side for one day!" she exclaimed, and jumped out of her window, landing gracefully in front of him with a wet cloth already at hand. She waved his hand away and pressed the warm cloth over his face, patting his face. "It doesn't _look_ broken..." she said looking up at his nose.

"It's nothing." Naruto shook his head. "Thanks," he quickly said, trying to side-step her, "Enjoy the rest of your break, I didn't mean to interrupt..."

"You didn't." Hinata assured. Naruto noticed that she was dressed in her civilian clothes. No fancy kimono. It made him realize how...small she looked-all those layers of Kimono made her shoulders look a little broader. But with that comfortable looking sweater, and shorts, she looked good enough to curl up with.

Naruto's eyes widened as he noticed her face suddenly inch toward him.

"Are you ok? Hokage-sama?" she then pressed her forehead to his. "You have a temperature?"

She stroked his cheek. "You're so...warm."

"Wha-"

In an instant he realized where he was, and he drew his fingers in front of his face.

"KAI!" he thundered.

He was suddenly back on the training ground, and was now glaring at Taishi, his other student.

"Clever genjutsu." Naruto said, and touched his face-his nose was still bleeding even more so after Kuma's oiroke-no-jutsu...Hinata hadn't suddenly appeared to him in her civilian clothes to clean his face or check his temperature by pressing her forehead up to his. It was all a clever disguise of his naughty students.

"You guys." He grit his teeth at Taishi.

"Whaaat?" Taishi whined. "It was pretty good, you have to admit. You didn't realize it was a genjutsu for a full five seconds!"

"Heh. Yeah." Naruto looked nervous as he caught sight of his shirt and used it as a tissue to mop up his face. Some of the blood already crusted off, leaving an iron taste in his lips.

"We were just teasing." Taishi said, his hands up in defense. "By the way, sensei-who was the person in the genjutsu?"

"What?" Naruto snorted, offended. "Oh yeah...you can't see the genjutsu you make for other people..."

"Yeah. But she was a special girl, right? The one I made check your temperature." Taishi winked through his sunglasses.

Naruto huffed, distressed when he realized that his own mind has automatically put Hinata's face into the genjutsu to mess him up. He felt like a fool.

"I gotta go." Naruto said, pulling his shirt over his head and grabbing his robes from the ground as well.

"What? We still have...twenty minutes of training."

"I realized I had some more important work that I've brushed off. I need to get them done before Hinata comes back." Naruto lied breezily. "Sorry squirts, I'll buy you ramen tomorrow, yeah?"

The three brightened instantly, the earlier ire totally forgotten.

"Really?" Kuma punched the air, "Yes!"

"Thank you sensei!" Akari clapped her hands.

Taishi merely smirked and nodded.

The three waved as their teacher flashed out of sight.

* * *

*flashback*

((Godaime Era / approximately three years ago))

When was the last time Hinata had properly dressed up for a formal occasion?

She couldn't remember. Even the Jounin vacation party last week that she celebrated with half of her friends was seen as a casual occasion in her eyes. She wore her same jacket and trousers even when she sat next to a bedazzled Ino, and a china-dress Ten ten. She was glad that the boys, at least, followed her idea and wore their same old outfits to the banquet and made the whole party a casual occasion.

It didn't mean the dressed up kunoichi didn't feel any less beautiful though. The girls at the party reveled in the turned heads and the catcalls they got that evening.

Hinata didn't mind that she hadn't received a compliment on her clothing. She always thought kunoichi who dressed appropriately for their missions were the true fighters. It was hard combating for affection when you were a shinobi with a bulky jacket, but Hinata honestly didn't think her first priority was to woo anyone. Her first priority was to protect her skin from poison darts, and sharp kunai. She never felt _that_ self-conscious about her clothing.

That is, until she walked into the Hokage office for her first day as Hokage's assistant, and was immediately lectured about dress code.

"Hinata-san. You can't wear that." Shizune had said in a shocked tone the minute Hinata walked into the waiting room.

Hinata looked down at her usual attire. Light purple jacket zipped loose pants, shinobi sandals. She didn't see what was wrong. She looked like a shinobi ready for a hard day of work.

"Go back home." Shizune said quickly, "Dress into something more suitable to represent Konoha."

Hinata blinked. "I-I'm sorry?"

Shizune got up and let Hinata look at her attire. It wasn't fancy by any means, but it was a degree more professional than the clothes Hinata was wearing. Shizune was wearing a loose-fitting yukata that had jacket-like sleeves, and several layers underneath that obviously hid her weapons. It wasn't fancy by any means, but you could tell that it was suitable for office life more than the battlefield.

"I'm not a fashion icon," Shizune started, "But this is as casual one can get to wear for an office job. What you're wearing looks like you're ready to get muddy."

Hinata looked down and frowned again at the comment. But she had to agree, a simple monochrome kimono was a better representative of a professional than a large bulky hoodie.

"Jounin guards wear the Konoha uniform. The council members wear their special cloaks, but assistants have the freedom to dress _nicely_. I know this doesn't look like much, but people take me seriously when they see that I am dressed in a traditional kimono."

"T-the only traditional kimono I have, I'm afraid, are furisode..." A furisode was an extremely formal kimono, usually decked out in all kinds of patterns and designs, with customary long sleeves that reached all the way down to one's ankle. Furisode were kimono worn by unmarried women that were of age to get married.

"Ah, that might be a little too distracting." Shizune nodded with a frown. "Well, dress in suits then. You must have some formal clothes that's toned down enough."

Hinata thought about it, and nodded. "I think...my mother had a few..."

"Well go wear it, and hurry up. It's almost day break. The sun'll come out and we have a lot of work to do." Shizune smiled.

Hinata quickly dashed back home. She snuck past her gates, opting to use rooftops and soon found herself rifling through her small selection of clothes in her bedroom.

"No...no...no..." Hinata was starting to sound desperate. All she had were jackets, sweaters, tank tops, training pants, baggy trousers...all in shades of a wishy-washy lavender and grey.

She needed something sharp. Black would do. Or maybe even green to represent the color of Konoha. She quickly snuck back out of her room and swiftly made her way back down the hall and stopped at a shouji door that led to her father's study.

She knelt down, and knocked on the floor just in front of the door.

"Come in." her father's voice said. Hinata only opened the door a crack, and bowed her head as was customary, speaking to the floor as she addressed her one and only father.

"Chichi-ue, I request the key to the storage shed."

Her father sighed, tired that she interrupted her for something so trivial. "In my cupboard. By the tea."

Hinata realized it was an invitation to get it herself, and quiet entered the room and made her way to her father's large study. She got the key without much trouble, thanked her father, and used his window to jump out of the Hyuuga estate and run toward the storage shed.

She was moving briskly and with a purpose, forgetting that she always got chills when she was inside of the large Hyuuga estate's storage shed. It was one of the few buildings that withstood the blow after Pein's attack, and all of it's contents were amazingly stored in it's entirety. A few vases broken, a few mugs shattered, but other than that-the wonderful silks that the Hyuuga stored in there remained untouched.

Hinata knew exactly where to look thanks to her Byakugan and found her mother's old box of kimonos and formal wear. She hoisted it out of its shelf, and immediately regretted coming alone. The box was _heavy. Seriously heavy._ She even saw that there was another box labeled with her mother's name right next to it. Hinata had a little time though, and just needed one kimono to wear on her first day. She dragged the heavy box toward the little crack of light that filtered in through the Hyuuga shed via front door, and opened the box then and there.

Red kimono, blue kimono, yellow... all of the Hyuuga colors were there. Beautiful silks that Hinata had always admired whenever she rifled through her mother's clothing. However Hinata had honestly never once looked at her mother's kimono collection before. There was no need, Hinata wasn't called to look nice in front of her elders unless it was new years...and even _then_ she liked wearing her jacket because the Hyuuga parties were dull and boring anyway, why did she have to dress up and feel like an odd ball?

She half expected that her own mother had worn each of the wonderful treasures once in her lifetime as well. There weren't much time when a Hyuuga woman was allowed to wear such flashy things. Which really was a shame as they were all beautiful.

Hinata then noticed the lavender colored one at the very end, as well as a dark black kimono. She brought them both out gently, They were wrapped in several sheets of paper, only reveling a small corner of the kimono so that one could distinguish it amongst the others. Hinata unraveled the black one, and deemed it worthy. It was simple, with only a few splashes of red and white crysanthamums blooming at the hem. She tucked the lavender kimono under her arm as well without looking at it and quickly shut the box. She didn't have time to put it back in it's shelf as she locked the shed up and fled hurriedly back to her room.

She muttered and hissed the entire time she changed. She had to get out her Kimono wearing underclothes and belt strands and it was only then that she noticed she forgot to go through her mother's collection of _obi_ until she was almost done wrapping herself up in the black kimono.

Hinata looked at the time.

An _hour_ already passed. When did _that_ happen? Sure putting on a kimono took time, but Hinata thought she got this covered. She was starting to whine as she searched in her own small collection of obi for a suitable color.

A golden obi with a streak of red streak caught her eye. She immediately started to wrap it around her when a knock sounded at her door.

"Yes?" Hinata said distractedly.

"An ANBU guard is here to escort you back to the Hokage towers. They say that you are late, Hinata."

It was none other than her _father_ who told her this. He sounded upset and irritated that he had to tell his eldest daughter she was tardy. He even made it sound like it was a natural occurance for him to be getting calls from the ANBU about Hinata's tardiness. Hinata was never late-her father at least should have known that.

Hinata panicked. She was freaking _out_.

"F-father! Please help me!" Hinata squeaked.

"Hinata?"

"Come in." Hinata tried to wrap herself, but the pressure of hurrying it up, and the fact that her father was outside of her door finally made her cave in and ask for help. The obi was the hardest part to wrap on your own, and Hinata always had at least three hours to figure it out whenever she was put in the position to dress in a kimono on other formal occasions. This time though, she was running late, and the obi wasn't helping her perfect record as a punctual employee.

Her father opened the door and paused. Staring at his daughter.

"What are you wearing?"

"Please help me father." Hinata said in a shaky voice. "I don't want to keep the guard waiting."

"Did the Hokage ask you to dress like this?" he asked, and came over to her and flung the obi over his daughter's shoulder and straightened a section of the thick fabric over her mid-section. Her father had experience tying women's obi, afterall, Hinata knew he was the one who helped her mother every morning.

"Shizune-san, yes." Hinata corrected distractedly as she turned her back toward him as he pulled the thick fabric around her once, and twice. The part of the obi flung around her shoulder was brought back down, and made to start the knot that would make the obi's bow.

Her father was quick and agile. Hinata found herself securely inside of her kimono and turned to face her full length mirror, so distracted she didn't see her father softly staring at her reflection alongside of her. Hinata noticed her hair was in simple bun that she made in an effort to keep it out of her way as she wrapped herself up. Without even batting an eye at her reflection, or the fact that the dark black kimono was absolutely _stunning _on her, Hinata started to fret about her hair.

"Oh dear." She muttered mostly to herself as she ran a brush roughly through her thick main and hoisted it into a simple ponytail.

"Here." Her father's voice made her jump. She had assumed he left as soon as his chore of fastening her in her obi was done. He had pulled out a simple black yarn from inside of his own kimono sleeve and held it up for Hinata to take.

Hinata looked at the gesture, then at her father curiously.

"Thank you, chichi-ue." Hinata replied softly, before taking the yarn and tying it in a bow at the base of her ponytail. It strangely fit...though she did still look rather childish with only a ponytail wearing such a gorgeous kimono. She had to worry about that later though, she quickly walked out of her room without a backwards glance.

"Good bye, Chichi-ue, thank you." Hinata quickly said over her shoulder as she moved as fast as she could in her kimono toward the front gates.

Hinata had to pass through surprised looking members of her family as she finally reached the ANBU guard standing at attention at her doorway.

"I'm terribly sorry." Hinata said. "I'm ready now." She slipped into her pair of geta sandals that she already had ready in her hands. She put them down and slipped them on, quickly joining the ANBU's side.

"It's fine."

The ANBU guard lifted her mask to reveal that it was none other that Shizune. Hinata sighed a breath of relief.

"I was only joking. You weren't late. You made good timing. But let's keep a spare kimono in our office so that you don't have to run to the other side of Konoha next time." Shizune said kindly. "That's a very beautiful kimono. It fits you."

Hinata blushed. "It was my mothers." She glanced at the shorter sleeves of her kimono-the sleeves of a married woman, or the sleeves of a businesswoman. Hinata was thankfully the latter. Shizune and Hinata made it out of the compound and Hinata was surprised that Shizune was making a leisurely stroll back to the towers. She guessed that this was already a part of her training as Shizune's understudy.

"You look good, the Hokage will be pleased. Do you have anymore kimono like that?"

"I suppose..."

"Well that's not a solid answer. Go shopping, buy suits, kimono, plain yukata, the works-you need to look professional even when the Hokage is snoring her butt off in her office. _You_ are the first person a dignitary, a Kage, a councilmember, or an ambassador will meet before seeing the Hokage. You must look nice." Shizune smiled. "Besides I was never given the opportunity to shop before I accepted this job. You'll thank me for this later."

Hinata smiled at her mentor. "Thank you, Shizune-san. I'm glad you're watching out for me."

"Well of course. I want my Hokage to look good when I stand next to her. Just because she has big tits and impeccable makeup, doesn't mean I can't dazzle a few of our politicians as well." Shizune gloated.

Hinata laughed politely into the sleeve of her kimono. She felt a slight bit taller once she was forced to walk straighter thanks to the tight obi around her waste.

"No but seriously, sometimes people don't take our Hokage seriously. We need to be stern and professional as possible. Which won't be too hard for you, but trust me-if Naruto becomes Hokage we need you to be in tip top shape."

Hinata nodded hesitantly.

"By the way," Shizune said, putting her hands behind her back as she walked. "I have come up with a point system."

Hinata blinked and looked over toward her mentor.

"A point system for...?"

"For your nervous habits." Shizune said bluntly. "I will be grading you especially severely in the presence of Naruto-kun. If you so much as _titter_ the wrong way, _that_ is negative five points. We'll start every day with ten points-I'll dock a point off whenever I see a behavior I deem unprofessional."

"Um...what?" Hinata couldn't help but feel totally lost. But Shizune continued like everything made perfect sense.

"I'll be scoring you with how well you react in front of Naruto. The highest score being a perfect ten, and the lowest score being negative ten. If you can't get a perfect 'ten' score-at least _once_ by the time Tsunade-sama has announced Naruto as successor. I'll give up and..." shizune sighed, "Look for another replacement, and I'll have to let you go."

Hinata somewhat understood now, as she gulped. "H...how is the grading system?"

"If you act as professional in front of him as you do to me without _any_ nervous jitters, and you start speaking more clearly-that'll be a perfect ten."

Hinata nodded.

"But if you blush- minus two points. Giggle? Minus five points. FAINT? _You'll get an indefinite negative ten_." Shizune waved her finger at Hinata. "No fainting in front of the boss, you hear me? And trust me, you _can_ control these things with patience and determination."

Hinata frowned. "And...you'll be keeping record of this?"

"Damn _straight_ I will. Tsunade-sama has also agreed to my grading system. She will be grading you as well." Shizune huffed, her hands to her sides. "But we have faith that you can overcome this. Can we trust you?"

Hinata pulled her toughest face. "Yes, Shizune-san!" she recalled how Naruto acted when he wanted to seem confident and puffed out her chest. "I...I will do my best!"

"Negative one point. You stuttered."

"Oh." Hinata sighed in defeat.

"No slouching. Negative one point." Shizune was obviously joking. Hinata straightened herself once more and put on a straight face.

"Right." Hinata looked determined.

"Chin up." Shizune tapped the bottom of Hinata's chin.

Hinata lifted her chin a degree higher.

"Now say 'I will work my butt off and show Hokage-sama that I will be the best damn Hokage aid out there' Straight face. No stuttering."

Hinata shot a determined look out into the clouds, and opened her mouth.

"I will work my butt off and show Hokage-sama that I will be the best damn Hokage aid out there!" she said confidently. Not even a waver to her voice. She had her hands into fists, and even pumped one in the air.

Shizune lifted her eyebrows and then offered a brilliant smile.

"_Now_ we're talking."

*end flashback*

* * *

((Rokudaime Era))

Naruto's romantic encounters had always been painfully short. His first girlfriend was a girl he pursued for as long as he could remember-Haruno Sakura, his teammate and very good friend. In a short amount of time they realized just how wrong they were for each other. Haruno's enlightening fists taught Naruto from early on that he didn't exactly _want_ or desire Sakura the way he always thought he did. In fact, after their second or third kiss, and holding hands out in public, they had already felt a strange strain in their relationship. Thankfully, talking it out and having Tsunade there as a referee had managed to make Naruto and Sakura split up in the most peaceful of break ups ever imagined. They were now good friends and still continued to rely on each other...but they would never lean in for a romantic kiss ever again-that part was clear.

But he was glad she was his first girlfriend. He felt like he overcame that part of his past, and even started to look toward the _future_, and got excited toward the possibility of a love in which he was crazy about the girl just as much as she was with him. He was a strange old romantic in these sort of areas, and it wasn't long till he found a woman that was desperately trying to gain his attention. She had died her hair a rosy pink, constantly picked on the lashes of her eyes with a handy mascara wand, and wore a revealing red dress to his office whenever it was time to turn in her mission reports.

The romance bloomed and wilted in a matter of weeks. Naruto got really fed up with her attitude, and her constant need to say 'I changed for you! You _have_ to change for me!'. She then found a way to sneak into his apartment and snoop in his drawers...and after that, the rest was history.

So, his second girlfriend lasted only two weeks if he counted right. The third, was the longest he was distracted by a girl since Sakura came along. She was a red head. Long red hair that reached her waist, a loud personality, and a very attractive mouth that he liked to kiss. However she was rough and tough, and constantly barging into his life, demanding for more and more of his time. He noticed how Hinata desperately tried to put out the escalating wars between the two by docking off her own break times to take over more responsibility for Naruto and give him some free time with the attention-hog girlfriend. But she then broke a very important chapter in Naruto's life. She became his _first_. He was twenty and he was finally experiencing sex-and he didn't want to let go of it. He liked being close to a person, and he loved how it made him feel. But the more he fooled around with the girl, the more he realized they were doing very little talking and more along the lines of fucking. He didn't even know that she used to be a Uchiha Sasuke fan girl, or that she was the one who used to call and pick on him when they were Academy kids. That didn't stop the way he thought he felt about her, but when she suddenly started to demand about _marriage_, and _kids_, and _why he didn't like talking to her_, gods-he felt like he was suddenly trapped.

His third girlfriend, who was his longest girlfriend, was also the girlfriend he knew least about yet shared one of the most intimate moments in his life. It was a painful break up when he finally let her go, and he felt a pain in his chest he had never felt before when he saw the woman he thought he loved throw a tantrum in his office. Causing his beloved plants he had planted since his first day of inaugeration, fall and wilt by the hands of an angry ex. Naruto then realized that he was definitely attracted to her...but there was no love between them. Only lust. She still never did forgive him, and her short visits to his office these days were filled with cold glares and flippant eye-rolls.

But his _last_ girlfriend was different. He thought he felt a true connection to Kurumi. Sure she was just like his third girlfriend who kicked and screamed when she didn't get her way, but she also _talked_ to him. Naruto didn't have to worry about prying information out of him, Kurumi told him _everything_. She trusted him, and opened up to him, and even let him see into her heart.

After three girlfriends, and realizing that his heart was already starting to loose interest in the girl, Naruto realized that maybe...just _maybe_...his type wasn't the brash, sexy, red-headed girls that used to fill his dreams with naughty thoughts. While dating Kurumi, other girls started to sneak into his dream. He was just to air-headed to connect the dots.

Kurumi did though. She did that for him when she ended their relationship. She pointed out how he had stared at his secretary. She made him watch as she mashed her mouth onto hers, and made his blood boil. She made him watchas she slid her tongue over the silky smooth cheek and lips and neck of the one and only Hinata Hyuuga. As if reminding him that Hinata Hyuuga was, in fact, touchable. She wasn't just something you could merely look at and fantasize about, she was palpable and so damn...soft.

Kurumi and his relationship ended just after their fifth month anniversary. It was two months shorter than his relationship with his third girlfriend...and he realized then that he had a serious problem. He was going through women like worn head-protectors. One measely scratch or offense and he instantly wanted to shrug her away. Once she got too clingy, he'd recoil. Once he realized how crazy she really was he'd want to run.

So he waited.

The stupid crush he had on his secretary would fade as well. He'd find a way to see that they weren't actually compatible, and he'd drop his crush instantly-just like he did with the other girls. Just like he did to Sakura, to Kurumi, to Mai, and Teru.

He hadn't had a stupid crush in a while. A crush he hadn't reacted on or immediately wanted to spread word of. He kept this crush a secret, and maybe that was why he was still staring, he was still floored and tormented when he saw a flaw in Hinata but only thought she was more of a woman because of it. Her shy tendencies, her ridiculously bad drawing skills, her really poor punchlines when telling jokes, even how she'd scolded him all became something he was absolutely fascinated with.

How did she do this? How did she manage to wring him up so badly? Was it because she was forbidden? Was it because Naruto _always_ wanted things that were too far out of his reach? She wasn't even interested anymore! She was, but he blew it! Now she was in a position where if he ever confessed his feelings to her, he'd be left with no secretary and an upset friend. How did he ever get himself into this?

Naruto groaned, finally snapping out of his reverie. He was in the midst of wrapping his forearms with the standard issue ninja tape. He was getting ready for a mission, and he was excited. He was hyped to get his mind off of the same old agonizing girl-troubles and just _fight_. He was so ready, that he had been recounting his kunai and repacking his emergency pouch over and over since the break of dawn.

It had been around seven months or so-he lost count-since he finally realized that he was into Hinata. She hadn't made it easy on him as she asked several times why he always stopped his work to stare whenever she entered the room. She was starting to get concerned about his behavior, and often asked him if he need to clear his mind with a mission. He agreed, and here he was, with the second mission in a _week_, getting ready to fight and his mind was _still thinking about her_.

"Hokage-sama, it's time." Hinata announced, coming into the room dressed in her Jounin uniform. He hadn't seen her in such garbs in a whole year, and he stopped short to stare again.

"Help me." Naruto quickly glanced back down and held up his wrapped up arm.

Hinata smiled and tucked her clipboard under an arm as she walked up toward him. She took hold of the roll that was dangling off his arms and continued to wrap it once, twice, around his wrist.

"Is it too tight?" she asked.

Naruto shook his head, making sure not to look at her.

Hinata suddenly pinched him, he jumped a bit and blinked up at her in shock. He rubbed the spot that she pinched his palm.

She was grinning, he couldn't help switch from giving her a look of offense, to a small smirk. What was she thinking?

"You've been zoning out a lot, I just wanted to make sure it doesn't impede on your reaction time." Hinata shrugged.

"Yeah." Naruto sighed looking away, "I have been out of it, huh?"

"Everyone's worried, Hokage-sama." Hinata said in a quieter voice. "But maybe this mission will clear your mind. It's normal for a Hokage to get spacey after working all of his life on building his strength... to spend so much time at the desk might be taking it's toll on you."

Naruto nodded, but inwardly he was shaking his head. He knew why he was zoning, out, and realized she needed to get away from him before he did something crazy like wrap his arms around her and blurt out a rambunctious confession.

"I'm good. Thanks Hinata." He dismissed. He brought the role of tape to his lips, and ripped it off. He patted down the rest of the tape on his forearm just as Hinata took the unused tape from his grasp.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Hinata asked, concern shining in her eyes.

He stared at her. His heart pounding, not because he was afraid of the fight or the mission to come, but because he was thrilled whenever her eyes looked up at his. He felt his hand reach up and touch Hinata's face, his mind was screaming at him to stop, but his palm touched her cheek. Hinata froze and searched his face for answers when she felt his warmth on the side of her face. His hands were so big, cupping her face on one side made her look infinitely smaller. She had daintily reached up, an electric shock at the touch of her hand pressing his hands to her face, accepting it there.

Naruto wasn't thinking straight. He was headed off to battle with his assistant by his side several meters away. She was in danger just as much as he was, and she was worried about him. It made him wonder if she's ever thought of him the same way he had been constantly thinking about her. He wished she did. He let his thumb rub her jaw, ignoring how Hinata was now shaking her head, her pressure on his hand not a faint brush of fingers.

His head slowly leaned forward. He wasn't thinking straight even when he processed the look in his assistant's face as his face inched closer. Her eyes widened, and it looked like she was holding her breath.

His thumb brushed her lips and Hinata jerked back. His hand grasped the air.

"Hinata..." Naruto started, and leaned forward.

"Hokage-sama." She quickly hissed, and turning her face away, a blush started to finally appear from nowhere, creeping up her neck and dusting her cheeks. "What are you doing?"

"I'm...a..." he stammered, lost for words. He saw how intently Hinata was staring at the ground, he wasn't a genius at guessing what girls were feeling, but he knew that Hinata felt confused and angry. She knitted her brows and kept her eyes on the ground, and gave Naruto a good view of her lovely neck. He instinctively leaned in, and he only stopped because Hinata flinched and took a loud step back.

"Shit." He hissed, and pressed both hands over his face. "Sorry...Hinata."

"Apology accepted." She said in a shaky voice he hadn't heard from her in a long time. "I'll be at the front line."

"Yeah." Naruto rubbed the back of his neck and watched Hinata go.

So...now Hinata knew what Naruto had been zoning out about...or at least he hoped she got it.

And Tsunade was right. Hinata wasn't in love with him anymore. A sudden fear arose from Naruto's gut, and he instantly froze up at the thought of Hinata quitting. Quitting! It was worse than a rejection-it was worse than never getting an answer-he suddenly gripped his head and slowly felt his whole world collapsing. Who cares if he finally had an interesting mission, he just royally screwed up his relationship with his secretary!

* * *

((Godaime Era))

"Hey, Hinata-_san_."

Hinata looked up and noticed Kiba was scowling down at her.

She sighed. "Hello Kiba-kun."

"Wait, you can still call me Kiba-kun, but I can't call you Hinata anymore?" Kiba snapped, his hands on his hips as he stared down at Hinata and her pile of paperwork she was supposed to finish in _solitude_ in the ever-empty meeting room three. "Cheap! This is cheap! Why did you take this position? You were _killing it_ out in the field. You were achieving top ranks among us!"

Hinata sighed, "I enjoyed my time as a field Jounin." Hinata lied, "But the Hokage asked me to consider a job that she felt was better suited for me. I agreed. End of discussion."

"You're starting to talk like...an office worker. Ugh!" Kiba shuddered. "Like Shino. You're starting to sound like him, you know that right?" he put a hand on the current file she was reading and she sighed and looked up at him with a hurt look on her face.

"Why are you so upset?" she finally just asked. "You should be happy for me. Jounin assistant isn't a bad job at all."

"No. It isn't. For a _grandma_. You're young. You_ just_ became Jounin. You haven't even had Genins yet...didn't you say you couldn't wait till you got your own team? Geez, you should stand up for yourself for once, Hinata! Stop letting the Hokage boss you around-you can actually make your own decisions you know! You have every right."

"I wasn't _forced_ to do this, Kiba-kun." Hinata said in a tired tone. "I chose it. She _offered_ it to me, and didn't boss me around." She got up from her seat and walked around the meeting room desk, grabbing the clipboard that was entrusted to her and heading down the hallway. Kiba started following her every step.

"Well she talked you into it, same deal! Whatever! You had hopes and dreams with the Jounin career and she up and took it from you and you don't even care!" Kiba waved his arms about and accused.

"What hopes and dreams?" Hinata snapped back. "Jounins don't have time for hopes and dreams, we're too busy butting our necks into danger."

"Don't use the word 'WE' as if you're a part of this! You're not a _Jounin _anymore!" snapped Kiba, and Hinata gasped and stopped walking-Kiba bumped into her from behind before Hinata slowly pivoted to turn to stare at him. "Not a _real_ one, anyway." Kiba growled.

Hinata rarely had fights with Kiba, but these types of fights-when he overwhelmed her with harsh words and that furocious growling made Hinata get antsy. She hadn't argued with him in a long time, and she felt utterly lost. She was getting the emotional beating of a lifetime in just the few minutes he barged into the meeting room.

"Kiba-kun, you-"

"What?" Kiba interrupted loudly, laughing, "A meanie? A wuss? God, you can't even cuss like a real Jounin."

"Y-you..."

"Go on, _say it_. Say something! Hurt my feelings, I dare you!" he threw his arms up in the air, and took a daring step forward.

"You're right." Hinata suddenly said, letting all of Kiba's anger simply fly over her as if she hadn't been bothered. "I'm not a real Jounin. Fine. You can have that title to yourself. But I'm keeping this job. Whether you like it or not." She turned on her heel again and walked off-attempting to give him the silent treatment.

"Hinata, wait," Kiba quickly barked, "I'm not done with you."

Hinata huffed in agitation and continued down the hall without slowing her pace.

"I'm _talking_ to you." Suddenly though, Hinata felt a rush of wind right behind her. She felt the presence of her other teammate as he landed on all fours in front of the angry Inuzuka.

"No. You're interrogating her." Shino's said, announcing whose side he was one in an instant. "I'm going to have to ask you to step away."

Hinata glanced over her shoulder and saw her two teammates. Both of them tense and not wanting to fight each other, but both of them obviously upset at the current state of affairs. She had honestly hadn't thought of what this new position would do to their team...they had never been separated before. They even were accepted as Chuunin and Jounin at the same time for pete's sake. It was rare for teams to get this far as a unit. She had stopped walking the moment she felt Shino's presence, instead she watched them silently, crossing her arms and hiding her nervous fingers in her kimono sleeves.

"It's Hinata's decision to get a promotion. Not yours."

"Why didn't she tell us?" Kiba snapped at Shino, forgetting that Hinata was only a couple steps away, listening to every word. Hinata was already hurt that Kiba was talking about her as if she was deceased. "Why did we fucking have to hear it in front of everyone and stand there all stupid?"

"You guys..." Hinata sighed.

But clearly the two weren't listening. Kiba was now shaking.

"And why the fuck are you _defending_ her? She's the one who broke up the team. Don't you have anything to say?"

"Hinata is a grown woman, Kiba. She can-"

"I fucking _know_ she's a grown woman! Don't pull that shit on me-aren't you _angry_?"

"I am not. I am happy for her." Shino said calmly. "And you should be too."

"I'm _not_." Kiba growled. "I hate it! I HATE IT! AND I HATE YOU-AND I HATE YOU _MORE_, HINATA!" he pointed an offensive finger first toward Shino and then toward Hinata. Hinata covered her face with the clipboard and drew out a painful sigh.

"He doesn't mean that." Shino said calmly over his shoulder.

"I DO! I DO MEAN IT! UGH! SCREW YOU GUYS!" Kiba threw up his hands and ran the other direction, and discretely threw himself out of one of the many big open windows on the third floor.

Hinata was shocked. She hadn't seen such a childish outburst from Kiba in _years_. She honestly thought he was done with his overdramatic declarations of 'I hate you's.

She walked up toward Shino, and looked at his silent profile as he stared off toward the direction that Kiba went. They remained silent like that for a total of a minute.

"Shino-kun." Hinata spoke softly, she was calmed by the fact that he looked down at her. She could tell, since she had been his teammate since they were children, that he was offering his form of a smile by looking directly toward her face. "I owe you an apology. And Kiba too. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. It was confidential..."

"I assumed that was why you didn't tell us. We have been teammates for years. I know this wasn't purposely done to upset Kiba or me."

Hinata nodded. "You're still upset, though."

"I have been a team with you for many years. I wasn't expecting our time together to be over quite so abruptly." Was Shino's answer. That was a definite _yes_.

Hinata nodded.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"You mistaken me for Kiba. I am happy for you." Shino quickly said in a calm manner. "I am simply feeling strangely nostalgic. Jounin life has not been easy...the thought of your absense in our next group mission...it is yet another strain in our lives, I must admit."

Hinata felt overwhelmingly guilty. "I...will still be assigned missions, here and there. We can still fight together."

"Yes we can." Shino nodded. "And I hope you put in good word with Hokage-sama to encourage her to put us in the same team sometime in the distant future."

Hinata suddenly felt teary. "Oh Shino-kun."

Shino nodded as well, and finally turned his broad shoulders toward her, a gesture that meant he was ready for a hug. She burried her face in his chest and hugged him. She heard the customary hum of bugs under his clothes. She felt her tears fall and soak his them and the buzzing of the bugs directly under her stopped as they shifted away from her offensive salty tears. She hoped she wasn't crushing any bugs.

Shino wrapped his arms around Hinata in an awkwardly stiff hug. He rested his chin on the top of her head.

"You have been an excellent teammate."

"Shino-kun!" she couldn't find any thing else to say as her throat tightened, and she openly started to cry.

Suddenly they heard rapid, violent footsteps rush toward them before they were both slammed in the side by an amazing force. Hinata didn't have to see for herself that the second pair of strong arms that suddenly wrapped around both her and Shino's form was their third teammate.

Kiba's impact skewed the goggles off of Shino's face, and Hinata looked up to see both of her teammates had watery eyes.

Kiba had tears streaming down his face as he hugged them both. Shino blinked in annoyance, and tried to lift at least one of his hands to fix the goggles on his face, but Kiba had them locked in a bear-grip hug.

"I still hate you guys." Kiba's pained voice broke over. Shino was actually the first to start laughing. Hinata followed, although tearfully, and finally Kiba chuckled as well.

Team eight regained their balance as a unit after the tackled on force of Kiba. Together, the three of them enjoyed their last hug as the unbreakable team eight. It didn't last long, as Akamaru's loud bark sounded off the alarm of another gatsuuga like hug-attack. Akamaru tackled them all and slammed them into the ground, forcing them all to laugh and get licked silly by his slobbery tongue.

Hinata laughed alongside her brothers.

And if anyone asked her what her first day of being a Hokage's secretary was like, all she could remember was that bear hug and feeling loved by her friends.

* * *

((Rokudaime Era))

The mission ended successfully. Amazingly.

Naruto was so distracted, that he had nearly caused harm to himself as the spirit of ghouls shot several large globs of it's demonic energy onto the homes of Amegakure. It was howling as several puncture wounds by Naruto's rasengan were gushing-an endless amount of chakra seemed to push forth from the wounds, and it made the rest of Naruto's men retreat. He eventually snapped out of his distracted state and wrapped up a fight with an epic appearance of the six-tailed beast, uncontrolled and hectic. He ripped the monster to shreds, but ended up depleting in chakra so rapidly that he ended up collapsed and exhausted. Kiba and Shino were the ones who ended up dragging him back to Konoha.

He remembered her words then, just before he summoned the presence of his tailed beast. What she said to him, and he instinctively put his hands over his hitai ate, which he always treated more like a lucky charm whenever a battle was near.

He squeezed his eyes at the memory and groaned, sinking back into his office seat. It all seemed like just a bad nightmare now. With the battle done and over with, his friends celebrating alongside the rest of Konoha, while he continued to feel this strange torment that he had been trying to shake off for the past few months.

He sat at the floor of his office, using his desk to support his head. He was slowly breathing to steady his drumming heart. The adrenaline in his system was still out of the charts, and he should have been feeling great and pumped up, but for the life of him, he was back to square one. That mission didn't do anything to distract his mind from Hinata, in fact it only made him realize that the first person he thought about before going into battle, and it scared him to no end.

And now, he convinced himself, she was quitting.

She was. He was totally convinced. He touched her _lips_, I mean...and she must have seen the way he looked at her _now_.

Speak of the devil, the door opened and there she stood, clipboard at hand and still in her Jounin gear.

"Hokage-sama." She said in her soft voice, her eyes inspecting him in his strange spot on the floor. "Why are you on the ground."

Naruto slumped further in his spot, not wanting to look at her. His face was a solid pout, his arms hanging limply next to him, his voice lost. He looked at the floor and didn't answer her like a petulant child.

Hinata closed the office door. Naruto's heart raced, and he glanced over at her serious expression on her face.

"Naruto-sama..."

"Wait." Naruto quickly said jumping to his feet. "Before you resign." He coughed out. "I just want you to know that...nobody can do your job yet-you have to take on an understudy if you want to leave, but you don't, so you can't yet."

Hinata looked like she was ready to speak, the moment Naruto saw her open her mouth his eyes widened and his mouth started to blabber on about nonsense.

"I'm not done!" He panicked. "All of these files?" he walked over toward his desk at the neat piles and knocked them over. "They're now disorganized. You have to help me-I mean, who knows? I could put this-" he held up a very important document. "In the shredder-pile!"

"Naruto-sama."

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Naruto called out, interrupting her. "My...plants! Yeah! Who's going to remind me to feed them if you're gone?"

Hinata shook her head, she had _never_ reminded him even once. Naruto did a fine job with his plants on his own. Naruto realized his mistake and quickly flew over towards another stack of documents, and flipped them over as well. He saw how Hinata briefly shut her eyes and exhaled slowly, fighting down the urge to rush over and pick up the documents from the ground.

"I still don't know how to behave in meetings with the council members! Who's going to tell me not to pick my nose in front of them?"

Hinata crossed her arms.

"Ah! Don't..." Naruto suddenly fell to his knees and his forehead smacked against the floor as he fell to the 'forgive me' position. He bowed low, his forehead still stinging from the initial smack. "I'M SORRY, HINATA! PLEASE DON'T QUIT!"

"Who said I was going to quit?" Hinata sighed. She bent in front of him, and touched his shoulder. "Calm down, Naruto-sama."

Naruto looked up at her, and caught her gaze. "You're...not mad at me?" he ended back on his butt, sitting on the floor of his now utterly cluttered office, staring up at Hinata.

"I'm not mad." Hinata whispered. "I know it was an accident, Naruto-sama. I'm sorry I took it the wrong way." She closed her eyes and let out a sigh of relief, as if her own words calmed her down.

Naruto instantly took this excuse and ran with it as well. "Yeah! Yeah, I'm sorry-I totally realized I was out of line, I mean...I...there was something on your face."

"Right?" Hinata paused to put a hand over her lips as if the 'something' was still there. "I knew you wouldn't try to do something inappropriate on purpose."

Naruto felt like someone punched him in the gut. Guilt was starting to make it harder for him to keep a steady gaze with Hinata's beautiful eyes. He kept them on her though, as if to maintain his newfound poker face.

"Yeah." Naruto laughed faintly. "Yeah, I wasn't trying to be perverted or nothing."

Hinata smiled brightly, shrugging her shoulders. "I know."

Naruto tried to smile, but for the life of him, his face wouldn't cooperate, he only ended up twitching his lips and letting out a nervous laugh.

"Not toward you." He emphasized. "You're my personal assistant. That would be really wrong."

"I'm so glad you feel the same way." Hinata put a hand to her chest and smiled. Naruto felt like another sad weight was dropped onto him. "You're a good man, Hokage-sama."

"Yeah." Naruto gulped, extremely glad that Hinata had given him a second chance, or at least-that's what it sounded like.

He saw the fear in her eyes the moment he accidentally let his urges get the better of him and he reached out to touch her. He saw that look that told him that she suddenly understood why he was staring at her lately, and saw the knot of a frown forming on her brow just before she quickly drew away. He saw all of that, so he knew deep down that she knew now. She knew he had been thinking of her inappropriately. She was saying all of this as a sort of warning. Don't do it again. She was saying. You're a good man, don't do it ever again.

Or I'll leave.

Naruto was glad for the second chance, and even the unspoken rejection, he had a feeling that somewhere in their past, he had done the exact same thing to Hinata when he hadn't answered her confession. Those days where she obviously looked up to him were far gone, and she made that very clear today when she calmly forgave him. Tsunade had been spot-on in predicting that Hinata wouldn't take his newfound attraction toward her seriously. But Tsunade had told him that she would outright quit.

He was thankful he wasn't the only unpredictable ninja in Konoha.

"Naruto! Hey!" a voice barged into the office room, Hinata took a step back to allow three ninjas barge into his office. Sakura, Sai, and Sasuke had waltzed right in. Sai and Sakura were dressed in their ANBU uniforms, while Sasuke wore regular civilian clothes. They all looked ready to party, each one holding a hefty looking bottle, and even Sasuke was wearing a rare smile.

"Nobody knocks." Naruto said toward Hinata in absolute ire.

"I'm sorry, Hokage-sama, I wasn't watching the reception area." Hinata bowed in apology.

"Come on, Hinata. It's not your fault." Naruto grumbled, and glared up at his three closest friends as they waved large bottles of alcohol in their hands.

"What are you doing on the floor?" the dry voice of Uchiha Sasuke drawled, eyeing the blond Hokage pouting on the ground of his office. "Is he throwing a tantrum?" he asked over toward the personal assistant. Sakura and Sai snickered, noticing the mess in the office as well, alongside Naruto still sitting childishly on the floor.

"No." Hinata closed her eyes, not finding the joke very funny at the current moment. Sakura, and Sai noticed the change in attitude from the Hyuuga and their smiles slowly faded.

"Is everything ok?" Sakura asked aloud, looking around. "Did you two have a _fight_?" she asked in disbelief.

"No!" Naruto scoffed. "Just...trying to find some documents."

"He misplaced them." Hinata came in to save him from his slapdash lie. "I was going to help but...it's just such a mess in here, I'm a little overwhelmed."

"Ugh! Naruto! Come on! You're Hokage now! You should be more responsible!" Sakura scolded loudly, shaking her fist at him. Naruto jumped onto his feet and made sure to stay clear of Sakura. She still had the tendency to send him flying if he offended her, it didn't matter if it was for something as minor as a missing document, Sakura would punch him as a sign of affection still...but right now even a light punch on the arm wasn't welcome.

"What are you guys doing here?" Naruto quickly asked, brushing aside some documents that were scattered over his chair and taking a seat.

"Duh! To celebrate!" Sakura quickly became her chipper self again and walked up to him to place a bottle on his desk and tilt it up so he could read the lable. "This is from Takigakure-village of the hidden waterfall, where their rice grows on the cleanest water on this continent. The best of the best!"

"I'm guessing Teme found it?" Naruto snorted.

"I've brought regular tonic water for myself." The Uchiha said coldly holding up the bottle he was in charge of. "But thanks for that, real low blow. Classy."

"Ah, yes." Sai piped up, speaking for the first time since coming into the office. "Duck-butt would have liked this one." He turned the bottle that Sakura was holding over, "It's very high alcohol content. Surely enough to forget one's sordid past of being a wanted missing-nin by the end of this bottle."

Suddenly a knife was shoved up against Sai's collar bone, threatening to tear skin. "You still don't know when to shut up, huh? Maybe I can help by cutting your tongue out of your throat."

"Then you should cut a little higher." Sai said calmly, not even flinching. "The tongue connects to the Hyoid bone above one's vocal chords..."

"Don't you give me an anatomy lesson." Sasuke hissed. "I've done it before!"

"Probably not very _well_ then." Sai said this with his usual calm smile.

"Sasuke, knock it off." Naruto finally wedged his way between the two. If Sakura wasn't always escorting Sasuke around when Sai was present, they would have definitely cut each other up by now. Sasuke and Sai didn't exactly keep it a secret that they detested each other.

Sasuke scoffed and flipped the knife in his hand and in a flash it was back in it's scabbard and safely tucked into his sleeve.

"I will be excusing myself for the night, Hokage-sama. Congratulations on the successful mission." Hinata bowed. Naruto nodded in acknowledgement, but wouldn't look at her anymore.

"Aww! Hinata-chan! You should join us!" Sakura said, not noticing the strange air between the two. "I've brought the best of the best!"

"And if not, you can join Sasuke in his first non-alcoholic drink ever since he's admitted his little problem." Sai said, clearly not learning his lesson as Sasuke turned on him again with the coldest glare.

"No thank you." Hinata said calmly. "Today has been a very trying day. I'm going to call it a night, but I do hope you enjoy yourselves." She bowed and excused herself. Naruto didn't say a single word as she left.

"Is she ok?" Sai was actually the first to ask. Naruto frowned.

"Yeah of course, why?" he scoffed.

"Doe-Eyes and I go way back." Sai said honestly. "She has always been the one to invite me to social gatherings, may I go back and invite her again?"

Naruto had forgotten how Hinata's kind nature has been renown even before her time as his personal assistant. He gave a curt nod, but said, "I don't think she'll come...but sure."

"I would like her to join us." Sai nodded and excused himself. When he was gone, Sakura nudged Sasuke who rolled his eyes.

"What?" Naruto frowned, looking at the two of them.

"Sai has a little crush." Sakura snickered, putting a hand over her mouth.

Naruto's eyes widened. Yamato's words of warning from way back came to haunt him again. "Uh...you're _kidding_...Hinata? Really?"

"He's been reading the _cutest_ poems! He's been 'practicing' them on Hinata..." Sakura used quotation marks.

"Not that they'll work." Sasuke said coldly, "He's too weird and cold."

"And you're not?" Sakura sent her old teammate a scolding look. "Come on, you have to be happy for him-this is his first girl he's shown interest in. I've just always thought he was a little..."

"Gay?" Sasuke cut in.

"Yeah." Sakura shrugged.

"Sasuke thinks _everyone_ is gay." Naruto deadpanned. Sasuke sent Naruto a glare that matched the look of hatred he usually reserved for Sai.

"I think it's so sweet that he likes her. She would be the perfect girl for him." Sakura gushed. "She's so kind and patient...way different from Ino."

"Were they an item?" Naruto had no idea of the wistful romance that happened outside of his office. He realized he hadn't been hearing rumors except the ones that concerned himself.

"For a short while." Sakura nodded. "But she kept getting frustrated with him, you know?"

"Not surprised." Sasuke said swirling the contents of his bottle and distracting himself with the small whirl pool he was making.

Sai returned shortly, obviously distressed and Naruto felt instantly relieved when he saw some actual emotion on Sai's face. It looked like an obvious no.

"Aw, she said no?" Sakura thought on the same track as Naruto.

"She said yes!" Sai said, his face still looked stunned and worried, as if he hadn't wanted her to say yes in the first place. "I...don't know what to do."

"Relax." Sasuke actually said. "maybe you should finish that entire bottle, it might make you forget that you're a total anti-social prick."

"Maybe you should do the same." Sakura tossed over her shoulder at Sasuke before grabbing Sai and shaking him supportively. "Don't _worry_, act natural. Hinata's a sweetheart."

Naruto gulped, glad that his teammates were totally oblivious to how _he_ reacted when Hinata agreed to join them on their rather private social celebration. She accepted _Sai's_ proposal, really? Sai wasn't her type, right? Then again-Hinata's first boyfriend was quite the looker, and although Naruto didn't get it-Sai was said to be 'cute' in the eyes of girls as well.

Was Hinata into that?

Naruto suddenly felt really self conscious, even forgetting for a while that in the past Hinata had a crush on him as well. He scratched his neck and wondered why the door wasn't opening yet. Hinata must have followed Sai back to the office, right?

"Well where is she?" Naruto asked, waving his arm around.

"She's going to meet us there." Sai said. "She said she needed to be dressed first."

"See?" Sakura beamed. "She's dressing up for you, that's a good sign, Sai."

"Is it?" Sai asked, he genuinely seemed intrigued, a facial expression that Naruto hadn't known Sai had mastered yet.

"She's just covered in sweat from the fight." Naruto piped up. "Of course she's changing. I'd like to change too..."

"Oh please, you don't care about that. Remember the time you were covered in sweat and gunk and you _still_ went to Ichiraku even though you smelled like the plague?"

"I chased away all the other customers." Naruto recalled fondly. "Good times..."

"If we're changing, can I go home?" Sasuke asked, raising a hand up and volunteering to leave.

"Denied." Sakura snapped. "You too, you're coming the way you are. We should head to the bar then, right? Before Hinata has to grab our seats for us! You lucky _dawg_ you!" she punched Sai lightly on the shoulder.

"I don't understand what that means." Sai bluntly said, back to his emotionless self.

"Of course you don't." Naruto snorted inwardly to himself. Nobody in the group caught his muttering as they started to file out of his office. He turned one last look at his chaotic office before following his friends, feeling that the feelings in his heart perfectly reflected the state of his office.

* * *

To be continued...

Ending Notes:

I don't mean for this story to be packed full of OC's, but I felt like it was necessary to show Naruto's growth throughout the years that I'm not covering. Since I'm taking a hefty jump in the current timeline, and Kishimoto-sensei is sure to introduce even more characters if he continues to write another 100 chapters for Naruto, I decided to take the liberty of a bad fanfiction writer and just give Naruto genin students, and a bunch of ex-girlfriends to start off my story.


	3. Chapter 3

**The Fifth and Sixth Jidai**

A/N:

**Dear Reviewers,**

Thank you for the supportive words! They were all an enjoyable to read! And sorry in advance as I ramble about one in particular-but the person I mention below wrote a review on an account that I couldn't send a private message to...so I'm tacking this on the author's notes. Again-sorry in advance, but I do feel like he/she addresses a few things that other people might feel frustrated with, so I felt like I needed to reply since he/she is asking questions that I _want_ my readers to ask themselves when reading my fic. But you have to actually read my story _and_ have read Naruto to understand where I'm coming from. I can tell if you're not a Naruto fan, because my story deals with a _lot_ of background information that I haven't even bothered to cover.

**Original review by IMSabbel:**

_I am still a bit hung up over the whole Hinata as Assistant thing._

_It just really really jumbles my suspense of disbelieve for serveral reasons:_  
_-The pick the only girl in the whole of Konoha who has a total crush on Naruto for the positon and then make a brainwashing program to de-crush her (seriously? Point system?)_  
_-The fact that the picked Hinata at all. She is proficient, but also incompetent, as seen in the scene of her first day. You got a very young new Hokage, so on obvious choice would be a very experiences secretary/aid (somebody like a generation older)_  
_-They make a point of outright telling both parties that any kind of romance would be the DOOOOM for the other party (Naruto being forced out of office, Hinata being roped into the evils of the Hyuuga clan)_  
_-I mean, seriously? After 2 years in office they would got "other canditates" because he is dating his secretary? The 3rd let Orochimaru go and the 5th was drunk all the time and nobody cared. And I want to see them getting another Hokage up while the old one is not either dead or in coma._

_I like the interactions and all, but this just too much artificial drama. Whole sections feel like the characters are thinking "Hey, nothig is wrong today! Lets punch myself in the face to change that!" - seriously, you have NOT given any good reason for all the drama. It is outright mastubatory in its needlessness, created just to satisfy the need to see the characters under sexual tension and distress._

_**To IMSabbel: **_

I know I've asked for _constructive _criticism, so thank you for putting some effort to explain why you don't like this fic instead of upright flaming it, but the examples you gave me as to why you're confused and frustrated didn't convince me that you're a _seasoned_ Naruto fan. I assumed that I didn't have to make a summary of how the government system works in Konoha...but I guess there are parts of Konoha's government system that may confuse those who hasn't studied politics from around the world-or political history (I believe that the Naruto-verse politics are very similar to Sengoku-jidai politics in Japan-meaning a large number of multiple clans hold the crux of the government). I'll make sure to describe it in the next few chapters and I'm sure you'll...calm down or something.

**If you want my view on why I think my fanfiction makes sense**, I suggest you read any Naruto chapter which involves the Hyuuga clan (From chapter #34 to current chapters #597 and so forth). The Danzo-Rokudaime arc, the Chuunin exam arc, even Naruto convincing Tsunade to become Hokage-has very good examples of how and why clan politics, the fire council, Konoha elders, Jounins and _finally_ the Hokage all must rule/work _together _for the village of Konohagakure to run smoothly. Having Hinata as a secretary can be very beneficial-for many reasons that I haven't even addressed yet. If you've read the comic, or seen the show, you'd know that the Hyuuga clan is a very important part of Konoha history and politics, and let's not forget they make Konoha very wealthy. Because of this, I thought it would be _pretty_ clear that Hinata wasn't just chosen as secretary for the fun angst and drama, she's there for political reasons as well.

Also I think your perspective on the title Hokage is a BIT too high if you think Naruto would be untouchable if he pissed everyone off with a sex scandal...either that, or you're ridiculously naiive. I want my readers to know that one's EXTREMELYvulnerable as a leader, and I feel Tsunade's 'scolding' was supposed to _highlight this_, not make it seem like this was a High School flick. My intention was to make her point out one of the biggest _reasons_ for why this drama wasn't 'artificial'-as you so wonderfully called it. Were you living under a rock during the Clinton years or did someone box your ears when the scandal of Sarkozy was on everyone's lips? Adultry _can_ make you a very unpopular ruler and can threaten your position, this isn't artificial drama-it happens in real life, so I suggest you pick up a god damn newspaper.

This review has also told me that I might need to up the rating to 'M' because this will get more complicated for those who are middle schoolers or younger. Anybody who misspells the word 'masturbatory' (which was a very funny and ironic word to mess up on, if you get my drift) and doesn't understand that dramatics and fanfiction kinda goes hand in hand won't understand or appreciate this fanfiction from here on out.

* * *

Flashback- Three months after Hinata agreed to be Shizune's understudy

**((Godaime Era))**

Shizune walked down the halls alongside her Hokage, who was in a very good mood, for a very good reason.

All the paper work was _done_. Early. It was a bloody _miracle_.

Even Shizune had to admit she was surprised with how fast-paced things had become the moment the second assistant they hired got comfortable in her role. She had just started to make suggestions a mere week ago that did amazing things with her confidence level. The office was running smoother than the time the Sandaime was in office. And the Sandaime had _swag_. He was known to have so much free time, he killed it by catching up on his favorite naughty adult book series.

"See? What did I tell you, Shizune? She's a miracle worker." Tsunade gushed. Three months in her position as Shizune's understudy and she had really gotten the hang of being a thorough and reliable personal assistant.

"She _is_ good at her job." Shizune agreed.

"I hear a 'but' in there, for some reason." Hokage snapped at her assistant. "Out with it."

"She's still..._horrible_ around Naruto." Shizune said in a hushed voice, despite the fact that she knew nobody else was walking this floor. You could never be too careful. "For the past three months, she's been scoring _negatives_ all over the place."

"Hm." The Hokage nodded. "She _is_ rather shy. I do admit I hoped that once she became Jounin she'd just snap out of it."

"And I know it's just a part of her, but..." shizune sighed, "I don't think the point system is working. Just intimidating her with negative scores doesn't seem to be motivating her to get stronger around Naruto at all!"

"I have to agree, but you don't need to worry yet. Hinata's just getting started on her apprenticeship, sure she hasn't made much _improvement_ with Naruto but..." the Hokage went on, but she caught sight of Shizune's annoyed look.

"That is the most important part of this deal, though! Can't she see that all this training for her to be an assistant is _useless_ if she's a complete mess in front of the next Hokage? And we need her there-what with the Fire council getting replaced by...imbeciles as we speak!"

Tsunade sighed in agreement, stopping short in giving the poor Hyuuga girl excuses. She understood were Shizune was coming from perfectly, but also knew that Hinata Hyuuga never was able to get over her crush toward Naruto. And not to mention she was a crucial part now to convince the council to let Naruto take on Hokage role this early. But lately Tsunade had been thinking that maybe they were pushing Hinata too hard...

"SHUT _UP_ PIG!" a thunderous voice roared all of the sudden, breaking the peaceful silence in the Hokage building.

"_YOU_ SHUT UP BILLBOARD-BROW! YOU'RE HOGGING UP ALL THE SPACE-LET ME THROUGH."

"RICH COMING FROM YOU, WHO'S NAMED AFTER A _HOG_ HERE? HUH? YEAH THAT'S RIGHT IT'S YOU-"

"STOP MAKING FUN OF MY NAME IT'S PERFECTLY RESPECTABLE FOR A YAMANAKA BEAUTY!"

"STOP MAKING FUN OF MY FOREHEAD-IT'S _ADORABLE_. EVERYONE SAYS SO."

"ONLY BECAUSE THEY WANT TO GET IN YOUR PANTS."

"THAT'S RICH COMING FROM A PERSON DRESSED LIKE _A TOTAL SKANK_!"

The two both made identical dramatic gasps of hurt, before silence followed. Tsunade and Shizune sweat dropped and noticed the fuming Jounin girls that had stopped at the top of the staircase to scream and yell at each other. They were currently holding a tender spot over their hearts, matching hurt looks frozen upon their faces.

"What are you two yapping about now?" Tsunade said tiredly as she eyed the two girls from across the hallway.

Sakura and Ino noticed their master and instantly saw their opening.

"SHISHOU!" Sakura said, looking up at her with a pleading look in her eye.

"TSUNADE-SAMA!" Ino wailed as well. They both ran toward her, and skid to a halt, grabbing on one of the Hokage's arms and suddenly starting a miniature tug of war.

"Shishou, I heard you're looking for a medic nin for the next mission in Sungakure, and I have to know if you're picking me." Sakura said haughtily as she looked up at her sensei.

"Pah-lease, she's picking me because I have better ninjutsu skills." Ino flipped her beautiful golden ponytail, forgetting that Shizune was in her line of fire. Shizune spit out the hair that accidentally stuck to her lips.

"_What did you say, pig?"_

"_You heard me, billboard-brow."_

"You two knock it off this instant." The Hokage shook the two off of her arms and glared. "This is not how a proper Kunoichi of the leaf behaves. Right yourself, and stop all this nonsense."

Shizune smiled from behind. "Hokage-sama, it's just nice having a rival. Look...how...far...these two..." she paused and suddenly a brilliant thought illuminated in front of her eyes.

Motivation...rivalry...it was all too simple! Why hadn't she thought of this _before_?

"I have to go, Hokage-sama. Sorry!" Shizune shouted and left her Hokage in the hands of the rambunctious kunoichi that instantly began their arguing as soon as Shizune left.

"Shizune! Where are you going! Don't leave me with these two!" Hokage panicked as she saw Sakura reach out and pull Ino's ponytail. Ino wailed but didn't let go of her harsh pinch she had on Sakura's thigh.

"You two are _twenty for petes sake KNOCK IT OFF!" _Tsunade's thunderous voice shook the entire Hokage building.

* * *

Hinata watched with eyes wide and mouth agape as the girl that sat closely next to her pulled out another compact from nowhere and dabbed at her face with a little bit more foundation. The girl blinked at her reflection with her long, false eyelashes, and gave a fake looking 'cutesy' smile that made it look like she was trying to smile with puckered lips.

The girl wasn't even a Jounin. She was a _chuunin_. Why was she here? Why did she just barge in and seat herself on Hinata's desk one morning and say she was promoted to be the Hokage's new assistant?

Hinata felt her heart grip instantly.

She remembered the warnings from Shizune that if she didn't work on her interaction with Naruto and get a positive score soon, she would find a replacement.

But...but why so _soon_? Hinata was still working on getting the hang of the paperwork and the municipal chores of a public official. The girl in front of her didn't look like she even knew half of the kanji that could spell out the word 'municipal', not that looks were everything...but the girls' limited vocabulary also proved her lack of skill.

"Why are you _staring_?" the girl in question had finally noticed Hinata's rather rude stare.

"Aren't...you going to help me with these papers?" Hinata tried asking nicely.

"You've already got them." The new assistant said looking her up and down and giving her a dull look.

"Yes, but they need to be organized and pre-read before the Hokage can read them." Hinata explained gently, she even offered a sad look, "I'm sure it will be good practice since you're new to the office."

"Well can _you_ do them? You obviously know more than I do." The girl said giving her a pitiful look back with an innocent looking shrug. She pulled out a magazine from nowhere and flipped it open and started reading.

Again, Hinata could only gape and stare.

She then confirmed her eyes as she looked at the forehead protector with the Konoha emblem shining on the girl's forehead and couldn't help but shake her head in disbelief.

Chuunin? Really? She would be shocked if someone like her was able to pass the pre-_Genin_ exams. Hinata just didn't understand how the new assistant before her got the position with that attitude, let alone that _attire_. She was still getting used to the habit of wearing a kimono every day, and this...young _girl_ came in wearing a skin tight looking dress that showed off her bony hips and petite breasts, and Shizune didn't even blink an eye!

Was this a joke? Were they testing her?

Hinata hoisted the large pile of files and found that she couldn't stop shaking her head in disbelief. She then _swore_ she heard someone muffling a giggle and she whipped around in shock when she realized the sound came from non other than Shizune's desk.

As soon as Hinata turned around, Shizune looked consumed in thought as she re-read over an important document and highlighted it's important notes. Hinata decided she was accusing Shizune of unfair indictment for no reason. Of course Shizune had good _reason_ for employing the girl that now took over Hinata's desk. Hinata decided to distract herself with the files before she could further upset herself with conspiracy theories.

That is, until she bumped into someone.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention!" Hinata gasped, bowing to apologize, only slipping up and sending more papers scattering around her. "Oh dear."

"Haha, don't worry about it."

Hinata's eyes shot up and her mouth suddenly went dry.

She looked up at _him_.

That guy.

Him.

Naruto.

"Sorry, I wasn't looking either." Naruto said scratching the back of his head. "Here, I'll help, don't get down-I know it must be difficult with that kimono on."

"Oh, no, no, I've g-got it!" Hinata said, blushing and stuttering like a fool. She even had a silly smile on her face as she blinked up at him. She smoothed out the fabric on the backside of her kimono as she kneeled down, daintily resting on her knees like the polite noble that she was born and raised to be as she started to pick up the papers around her. Naruto kneeled and helped her as well.

"Geez, this looks complicated." Naruto said lifting one of the papers up to his face. "All these words..."

"Being Hokage is hard work." Hinata agreed, and accepted the paper from Naruto.

"Heh, I know." Naruto grinned. "I'm going to do this one day." He said waved the last of the papers he picked up before passing them to Hinata, who graciously bowed her head in thanks.

Hinata smiled up at him. Her eyes dancing with admiration.

"Minus Seven Points." Shizune coughed into her hands, watching the scene from a distance.

Hinata instantly paled.

"Hey, you ok, Shizune-nee? You got a cold?" Naruto asked up toward the other assistant.

"Just a small cough." Nodded Shizune and waved it off. "No need to worry."

"Ah, now that you have Hinata here, I bet you can relax a bit." Naruto said, loudly thumping Hinata's back as if she was one of his buddies. Hinata winced at the force, before hoisting herself back on her feet with the large pile of papers. "You'll take care of our Shizune-nee, wont you, Hinata?"

"Y-yes. Of course."

"Minus one point." Shizune coughed.

Hinata wasn't listening though as she hugged the documents closer. Her blush deepened.

Naruto got up too.

"It was nice seeing you." He grinned down at Hinata. "Keep up the good work."

"I-I will." Hinata nodded.

"Oh my _gosh,_ Naruto?" Hinata heard the incredibly _unhelpful_ Hokage aid that sat at her desk shoot up to her feet. It made Hinata's hair stand on end.

"Ehhhh!? Mi-mi-mi-Mika?" Naruto sounded a bit nervous, and just as Hinata finally got a steady grip on her papers again, she saw the Chuunin girl launch herself at Naruto full throttle, sending Naruto sprawled on his back.

Hinata's eyes widened and her mouth fell agape _again_. She realized she wasn't breathing, and was positive that she was turning blue in the face. She didn't know it, but she also had dropped all of her documents again, and it spilled all around her like a fan, her arms fell limp to her sides.

Mika was now trying to get Naruto to kiss her by force, while Naruto laughed nervously with a scared expression plastered on his face.

"Ahhhhh, no thanks! No thank you, Mika! Haha. Yeah let go now!" Naruto said. "I mean it! I'm going to-BAA-CHAN! HELP! HELP MEEE!"

But Hinata couldn't hear anything. Strangely she watched the spectacle with wide eyes and a deaf ear. She flinched when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She couldn't turn away to face whoever touched her, but she had a feeling in the back of her mind that it was Shizune.

"Come on, Hinata." Hinata suddenly heard, and was pulled away by Shizune.

Hinata was a statue when Shizune finally brought her to the roof of the Hokage towers. Her mouth still open, her eyes still wide unblinking shifting back and forth, slowly realizing that she _wasn't_ seeing that awful spectacle of her childhood crush getting groped by a young teen.

How _bold_ was that girl?

A sudden flare in her chest made a sound come out of her mouth that she couldn't quite understand herself. It sounded like a mangled gasp, and she realized she hadn't been breathing the moment she watched that awful spectacle. She suddenly gulped in air as if she was underwater the entire time. Her lungs were burning, and she finally felt the dizziness that lack of oxygen did to your brain. She wobbled on the spot, when Shizune caught her.

Oh yeah, air. Hinata weakly thought.

"Hinata." Shizune looked at the girl in worry. The girl had turned _blue_ for heaven's sake. Shizune had not been expecting _that_ reaction from her.

"W-where are we?" Hinata blinked in a soft, far-away voice.

"The top of the Hokage towers. Look, Hinata..."

"I quit." Hinata suddenly announced.

Shizune gaped at her, eyes wide.

"You _quit?"_

"I quit." Hinata repeated in a soft, far-away voice. "I can't work with her."

"Hinata." Shizune said in a stern voice, but Hinata shook her head, pressing her hands to her ears so that she wouldn't hear Shizune talk her out of it.

"I don't want to work with her. I quit." Hinata said instantly, but received the shock of her life when her face was suddenly thrown to the side and her cheek _burned. _The loud _slap_ echoed in the air, before it left the two in utter, painful silence.

Shizune glared at Hinata with a look that Hinata had never seen on her mentor in the past few months she was under her tutilage, and they both stared at each other as if they hadn't ever seen one another before. Matching lost looks and bewildered eyes searched each other's face.

"W-what was _that_ for?" Hinata rubbed her cheek.

"You are a coward. That's why." Shizune finally said, drawing a strong front and raising her voice. "How dare you say such a thing so casually-what would Naruto say if he heard you?"

Hinata shook her head. "He wouldn't care!" she threw her arms up in the air. "Don't you get it? He-doesn't see me!" she waved a hand over her face. "I'M INVISIBLE!"

"You know you're _far_ from that when you're blushing and poking your fingers and getting all 'na-na-Naruto-kun'" Shizune immitated one of Hinata's infamous lines and started fidgeting on the spot. Hinata took a step back and blinked in shock.

"I-I can't _help_ that."

"Well you have to _snap out of it_ if you want to be Naruto's assistant."

"I can't!"

"No. You _won't_. Hinata I'm worried about you. You are a wonderful assistant and I want you to continue being successful-so god damn it-make an effort to _act professional in front of Naruto_."

"I _am_-I'm trying my best!"

"No you aren't. I wouldn't have hired Mika if I didn't feel like you were making an improvement." Shizune said fiercely.

Hinata's shoulders drooped, and she looked at her mentor as if she was slapped in the face _again_.

"What a pathetic reason to quit your wonderful career. Because you don't like someone?" Shizune spat. "I'm disappointed, Hinata."

Hinata looked down, and grit her teeth. She hated that word. She hated people _telling_ her that they were disappointed in her. They didn't need to say that when it was obvious she wasn't exactly _thrilled_ with herself either. She felt a strange deja vu of this exact event happening with every other mentor she's had and felt bitter tears sting the back of her eyes. But she wouldn't cry. She was done crying.

Besides, it would make her eyes red and puffy, and the thought of looking unprofessional and teary next to little-miss-compact-mirror-carrier made Hinata's spine tingle with absolute distaste.

"Sure she's insufferable and the absolute worst out of all of us Kunoichi, but she's also your rival now."

Hinata took a sharp intake of breath at such offensive thoughts. "Her? HER? _My_ rival?" she scoffed. Actually _scoffed_. Hyuuga Hinata never scoffed.

Shizune calmly crossed her arms. "You don't like the idea?"

"No! I refuse the idea. I'm surprised she's even a Chuunin, with that attitude and sense of responsibility." Hinata said harshly. She couldn't even believe half of the words flowing out of her...she guessed being jealous had brought out the worst of her. He hadn't even felt this strongly when she finally accepted that Sakura was her rival in love as well. She always thought Sakura-san _deserved_ being with Naruto. She was a hard worker and kind and passionate just like Naruto, Hinata understood that. But Mika...was extremely rude and wasn't motivated to do her _job_. She was the kind of people Hinata just wasn't..._used_ to.

"She is pretty far down in the ranks. But her father's kind of a big deal merchant-man and he makes Konoha really rich. There is no doubt that most of her successes are due to bribery."

"That is awful!" Hinata spat, angry and upset. "And you're making _me_ her rival?"

"Why do you say it in such a disbelieving tone, Hinata? How is she different from you?" Shizune asked.

"_I_ am a proud shinobi of the leaf." Hinata said in a very clear voice, all of the earlier jitters flown away as anger made her project herself. She placed her hand over her Hitai ate, forehead protector with the Konohagakure emblem that she kept in a hidden pocket in her obi. "I _always_ will be a shinobi first and foremost even if I _wasn't_ born with natural shinobi skills, I worked _hard_ to earn the position of Jounin. That-that _girl_ is nothing more than buying titles! I doubt she has ever understood the true joy of working for the safety and prosperity of the village she lives in!"

"Wow, you're right you're way better." Shizune said crossing her arms and turning slightly away from Hinata's vigorous speech. Hinata noticed that Shizune was biting her lip to keep herself from laughing.

Hinata huffed, and blinked. "Are you making fun of me?"

"I'm not. I'm saying you have to prove you're better than Mika-san by beating her in this criterion. Naruto. What Tsunade-sama said earlier was wrong of her-She can never tell you to stop loving him. In fact, it's great you do, I know that that's what made you the strong Jounin you are today." Shizune said softly. She reached up and put a hand on Hinata's shoulder. "You can keep loving him, but you _can_ change how you act around him. I know you can. Kunoichi has been trained for centuries to control their body's natural reaction and perfect the skill of acting."

Hinata blinked, in confusion. Acting? When did that come to play?

"Act as if he's one of your friends. Think of Kiba, or Shino. You can still be friendly toward him, but I mean it Hinata-don't blush, don't stutter. Don't show that side of yourself to him anymore, because even if he doesn't see you and thinks your invisible, others around you can see it and it will make you a target of mockery if you become the official Hokage Assistant."

Hinata gulped. She knew all of this, and she was determined at the beginning, she remembered her willingness to put her affections for Naruto aside in an attempt to become his _strength_. But Naruto didn't make that very easy. He had made her feel and act stupid since they were still in the Academy, Shizune just couldn't understand how she felt.

"I'm sorry I'm being so...impossible." Hinata said in a small voice.

Shizune gulped and nodded, finally showing that she too felt that she had probably taken things too far. "I just didn't see you improving."

Hinata shook her head in horror. "So...you hired Mika-san...to make me jealous?"

Shizune sighed, "No. I hired Mika for real."

Hinata gaped at her.

"I mean it Hinata. This is for your own good. You're going to battle it out with Mika. I'm going to grade her on her behavior in front of Naruto as well. Mika doesn't blush _or_ faint, so she has a higher possibility of becoming Naruto's assistant than you do at this moment in time."

Hinata gasped dramatically. "You _can't_ be serious!" Mika would be an even _bigger_ mockery for both Naruto and the entire village!

"I _am_ serious, Hinata. You need to make an _active_ effort to drown these habits of yours. Or I'll give Mika your job."

Hinata pressed a hand over her lips.

"Your serious." Hinata finally observed, seeing that Shizune looked her straight in the face.

Shizune crossed her arms and nodded solemnly.

Hinata drew a very hard, determined face. "I'm going to beat her for the good of the village."

"We'll see." Shizune smirked.

"You just watch, sensei." Hinata glared. "I'm not going to lose."

"I _really_ don't want you to." Shizune admitted with a faint laugh.

*end flashback*

* * *

**(( Rokudaime Era / Present Time))**

Sasuke was staring at the glass in Sakura's hands with great intensity.

"If you want a sip, all you have to do is ask." Sai had noticed Sasuke's longing, and held up his own glass in front of the Sharingan user.

Sasuke snarled and pushed the offensive cup away.

"Knock it off, Sai." Naruto had scolded as well, "Teme's doing a good job. What is it? His second day sober?"

"My _56__th__ week, _idiot." Sasuke seethed, as Naruto slapped a hand over his mouth and tried to keep in his bubbly laugh.

"Geesh, he's counting in _weeks_." Naruto snorted in his laughter.

"That's really embarrassing." Sai cut in.

"Can you two _stop_?" Sakura glared, finally stepping in as mediator, and hooking an arm around her former crush. "You two are supposed to be the most supportive. Why do you always feel the need to tease him?"

"He makes fun of me all the time!" Naruto whined. "And he calls me names, and he's always picking on my genin. Why are we even _friends_?" he wondered aloud, giving a look to Sasuke.

"You have a crush on me." Sasuke deadpanned, taking an innocent sip of his soda.

"Yeah, you wish." Naruto snorted.

"More like you have a crush on Dickless." Sai said, making the tension even thicker between the old team. "Which is pointless-he doesn't have a big enough dick-ow!" Naruto shoved Sai's head in the bar table.

"You sure love talking about dicks, the both of you." Naruto hissed dangerously. "Maybe you two are made for each other."

"Ugh. Boys." Sakura agreed as she rubbed her forehead. "When is Hinata coming? We need a little less testosterone here..."

"I guess I came just in time, then?"

"Speak of the devil!" Sakura laughed, and turned around, embracing said friend. "Sit down! We saved you a seat."

Hinata did just that, accepting the empty seat next to Sai. She hadn't looked like she really changed, simply dropped off her Chuunin jacket and slipped into a sweater. Her bottom half was still the same trousers one would wear with their Jounin uniform.

"I'm sorry I was late." Hinata said politely, nodding in thanks when Sai helped her scoot into her chair.

"We started without you." Sasuke assured. Sakura elbowed him to shut up.

"This is weird." Naruto couldn't help but observe, looking at Hinata across the table. Hinata offered up a small smile of her own.

"You're...right." she said, their eyes connecting.

"Why?"

"I'm always sitting on the right side of Naruto whenever we're sitting at a table." Hinata observed. "This is the first time in a long time we're...sitting apart."

"Haha." Naruto said nervously, rubbing his neck. "It looks like you're Sakura's secretary right now." He noticed that Sakura sat to Hinata's left, while Sai sat to Hinata's right.

"Ugh, I would kill to have a secretary as good as you right now, Hinata. The nurses at the hospital are just so understaffed that nobody who is remotely qualified can help me." Sakura complained.

"I think it's time to accept Genin students, Sakura-san." Hinata offered, "The new class will be graduating this spring, I'm sure we can set you up with students who have the promise of a medic-nin future. It's best to train your own assistants."

"That _is_ true." Sakura said. "And I have actually been thinking about getting my own students...it just seems like _so_ much more work though. I can barely handle my current schedule."

"You'll have less hours at the hospital, and more time training your students." Hinata agreed, "But I hear it's very rewarding."

"It is." Naruto cut in, thinking fondly of his students. "I first didn't want my genin kids-Tsunade-no-baa-chan forced it on me! But I'm really glad she did!" he revealed, making all eyes turn to him in surprise, even Hinata looked pretty shocked.

"Tsunade _forced_ them on you?"

"Yeah. I only just turned into a Jounin a year or two before I got my kids. Usually people wait a solid five years before thinking about students...and even then people usually graduate to ANBU and take some time enjoying the S-rank missions." Naruto said gesturing Sakura and Sai's current uniforms. "I went straight from Jounin to Jounin instructor."

"It's puzzling that she pushed that on you so early in your career." Sakura agreed. "Maybe she meant to make you Hokage way before you became her official successor!"

"What? How did you come up with that?" Naruto asked innocently.

"Well, the Hokage has to have some experience with training students before accepting the job. It proves his leadership skills." Hinata reminded her hokage, and Naruto nodded.

"The council wants to make sure the Hokage passes down some of his skills to the next generation before taking office." Naruto recalled, nodding. "I guess I didn't see that as a step to becoming Hokage, I just thought she didn't want me wasting my time flirting and more time teaching."

"You were horrible back then." Sakura snorted, rolling her eyes.

"I was _awesome._" Naruto corrected. "And I'm a great teacher, right Hinata?"

"You are." Hinata agreed. "The kids simply adore Hokage-sama."

"Well duh, they don't know any better." Sasuke cut in. The comment made Sakura nudge him again.

Hinata giggled though, "Maybe that too."

"Hinata!" Naruto whined, but he was glad that the mood from the office hadn't followed Hinata to their get-together. She was solidly determined to brush off their previous 'uncomfortable' encounter.

"Hinata-san, would you like genin's too one day?" Sai asked, finally speaking. He had been looking nervous and shifty ever since Hinata joined them. When she looked over at him, Naruto noticed the usually calm and reserved Sai stiffen up considerably.

"I...am not too sure." Hinata had to confess. "That would mean I would have to quit my duties as Hokage's assitant, and I'm pretty sure that won't be very good at all, besides, the main family Hyuuga members very rarely become Jounin instructors."

The team was surprised to hear about that, "Why not?" Sakura asked, but Naruto knew more clan politics thanks to his two years in office and quickly answered for Hinata.

"The Hyuuga's special skills include the Byakugan and the gentle-fist fighting style that most students can't replicate. Sure, the Hyuuga are good at keeping their skills a secret and they have a good knowledge on other basic fighting styles...but then they wouldn't be teaching their students with their utmost potential. They instead train their own clan children, or take up permanent positions in the ANBU field."

"Though it's a shame." Hinata nodded, agreeing to the words of the Hokage. Naruto's teammates were staring at Naruto quite strangely, as if forgetting that he _was_ the actual Hokage. "I would love to have genin students. Are Sasuke-san or Sai-san thinking of genin students as well?" she asked quickly switching the conversation away from herself in quick and sweet Hinata-fashion.

"I would like a few more years as an ANBU." Sai informed.

"I'm still on probation." Sasuke muttered, but that didn't sound like a 'no'.

"But would you like one?" Sakura caught on to Sasuke's disgruntled answer as well, and leaned in, interested.

"Nuh-uh." Naruto snorted. "Sasuke with kids? _I'd_ be held responsible if they go missing!"

This time Sakura kicked him underneath the table. "Could you be any more crass? Really?"

"I think Sasuke-san might just be ready." Hinata piped up. "He's been on probation since he came back to Konoha, has shown his allegiance again, and is training and getting back into shape-maybe getting his own team would be that motivator needed to activate your sharingan again?"

"I don't even know if I want to activate it again." Sasuke said darkly. "But I would like missions." He said, glancing over at his friend, revealing just a corner of his heart. "I'm bored." He finished lamely, embarrassed for all of the things that led him to that moment. Embarrassed for becoming a missing nin, endangering his friends, killing his brother, blaming Konoha on everything, and finally even coming back...and having to face asking Naruto for help. He sometimes wondered why he didn't just give up and continue being a missing nin for the rest of his life.

"Well, missions would be a good idea too." Sakura goes on. "It's a good way of forming loyalty to one's country again." She glanced over at Naruto who was slowly shaking his head.

"Hey, if it's a mission you want, I do have several D and C rank missions that need to get completed." Naruto shrugged good-naturally.

"D-rank?" Sasuke sneered.

"You're still on probation." Naruto reminded. "Yeah, D-rank, you're lucky I even _mentioned_ a C-rank."

"Should I make a note to hand Sasuke-san a mission starting this Monday?" Hinata asked, whipping out a notepad out of nowhere.

"Yeah." Naruto said, leaning back on his chair and waving a hand about, "Make him an appointment for a seven o' clock review. Also call up some blank scrolls to be sent to his apartments where he can practice writing some mission reports."

"Your seven o'clock tomorrow is already taken, I'll move it to seven-thirty-five. Will that be all, Hokage-sama?" Hinata asked, concentrating on the notes on her notepad as she furiously wrote down the requests.

"Oh yeah, can you fill him in for next weekend too? If he's going back to ninja duties, we need to alert the council...just to be polite, you know?" he shrugged to a shocked looking Sakura.

Sasuke's eyes widened, obvoiusly not expecting his request to be taken so seriously quite so suddenly. Sai, was staring at the girl next to him and wondering where the casually dressed woman had gone and why the secretary duties were suddenly back.

"Geesh, where did Naruto go?" Sakura joked. "Once Hinata's here, he's back to being Hokage-sama."

"Oh dear." Hinata blinked, shocked at her own actions. "I'm terribly sorry, how rude of me." She paid special attention to Sai and bowed her head to him. That small gesture didn't go unnoticed by a certain blond and he felt his insides do weird flips again. He recognized jealousy when he felt it-it was the same feeling he got whenever he hung out with Sasuke when they were much younger.

"We can never take actual breaks from this job." Naruto reasoned. "And stop apologizing, Hinata!" he shook a finger at her but was grinning, obviously he was used to saying this to her.

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

The rest of team seven laughed good naturally.

"You two are so funny together, I guess I haven't really noticed." Sakura smiled.

Sai was also smiling, "Even outside the office, we are constantly reminded how different you two are."

"Complete opposites." Sasuke agreed. "How do you manage to work with him and stay sane?" he asked Hinata, obviously this was his idea of a compliment.

"I drink a lot of tea." Hinata made an act of sighing, and the rest of the table laughed.

"Hinata-san, talking about tea..." Sai started.

The rest of the table suddenly got very, very quiet.

"Would you like to go out sometime?" Sai said bluntly, in front of them all.

Hinata didn't look too surprised, maybe she looked like she didn't understand why everyone stopped in their laughter so suddenly, or why everyone was suddenly intent on her face, but she awkwardly looked straight at Sai and nodded.

"That would be very nice, Sai-san." Hinata agreed.

"As a date." Sai had to clarify, he never did know if he wasn't being clear or not.

"Oh ok." Hinata said, and only Sakura caught on that it wasn't the most _enthusiastic_ of agreements. Hinata wasn't jumping up and down and eagerly trying to please Sai with her cutest smile or clutching nervously at her hair. Hinata merely smiled and nodded. It was probably the most boring agreement for a date ever.

"I can't believe it." Sasuke cut in, "Sai has a date."

"It's getting late, right? Shouldn't we be going to bed now?" Naruto interrupted the group.

"But Hinata just _got here_." Sakura said, eyeing Naruto and giving him the look that said 'don't you dare leave'. But Naruto was already putting down his now empty cup.

"I'm really sleepy." Naruto said while taking out gama chan and laying his due amount on the table next to his empty cup, and curtly nodded. "See you tomorrow."

"Awwww."

"You poop."

"Boooo."

"How old are you guys?" Naruto snapped, before straightening his coat.

"See you tomorrow, Hokage-sama." Her soft voice seemed to cut away his ire that he felt for his teammates.

Naruto cast a glance at Hinata, and although he would have loved it if he could just cast her _one_ cold glance that told her how upset he was, for the life of him he couldn't. Once he looked at her calmly staring lavender eyes, all of those pesky, petty feelings vanished out of sight. The jealousy that had forced him out of his seat was now centuries away when he stared back at her.

He smiled.

"See you, Hinata."

* * *

**((Godaime Era))**

Hinata held up her handkerchief to her face and quickly patted away the remainder of tears that were flowing from her face.

_Another_ negative score. A point lower than Mika-who _pounced_ on Naruto again. It was the biggest insult being situated next to the girl, but to have a rival who didn't even know what they were being scored on seemed extremely unfair..._and yet_...Hinata was still loosing! To Mika! Loosing to Mika, Hinata couldn't stomach it.

And she was starting to feel better about herself and Naruto too. She felt like she was really starting to get better around him. But Tsunade and Shizune were both extremely thorough graders.

_You stuttered a bit_.

_You blushed_.

_You laughed for a minute at that really stupid joke he made. _

Nit-picking every little thing that Hinata didn't even think she could change about herself. So what if she laughed at a knock-knock joke? Everything he said was so _funny_. Her heart clenched as another shudder of a sob erupted from her and she pressed her damp handkerchief over her face to muffle the sound of her heartache.

Hinata knew they were just training her. She _knew_ it was training, and it was specifically for her because Mika didn't even know Naruto was going to be successor. She didn't know a _lot_ of things. And she definitely didn't know how to hide her own affections! And wasn't this point system supposed to measure how professional you're being? Hinata swore she was more professional than Mika, and yet here she was-crying because her superiors were insinuating that she _wasn't_.

She told herself she was done crying, but today was especially tough when she had to follow Tsunade to the hospital and see Naruto leaning against the wall and tell Sakura-san the joke that he had practiced earlier on her. When Sakura out-right didn't laugh and shooed Naruto away, that dejected look on Naruto's face pulled at Hinata's heart strings. When she was about to rush to his side, Tsunade grabbed a hold of her.

_Not now._ She merely said, and Hinata suddenly realized she was _on the job_, and was about to abandon her post next to the Hokage for Naruto. Just the simple order tore Hinata up. It was absolutely agonizing. She thought about her behavior the entire way back to the Hokage office, and when Shizune asked why Hinata looked slightly loopy, Hinata told her that she simply was disappointed in herself.

And she was. Disappointed in herself. She loved Naruto. Her mind was constantly putting him first and she tried to think of her duties as Hokage assistant first, but she brushed it aside like it was nothing the minute she saw a _frown_ on his face. There was definitely something wrong with her.

But Naruto didn't love her. Naruto didn't think about her that way. Naruto had his mind set on his _goals_ not silly little girls who pined over him since as long as they could remember. Naruto was more motivated. Naruto wouldn't have abandoned his post if he saw his crush get disheartened, would he? Hinata didn't know, but she was starting to feel _guilty_ when she thought of Naruto. All this training was making her feel bad about being in love. With Naruto.

Naruto just wasn't good for her heart. He hasn't been for a good while, now, hasn't he?

Hinata blinked up at this revelation. She hated herself for thinking it, but the usual trickle of guilt that would flow into her when she thought of him had stopped once she thought of him in a negative light. She realized she's never really looked at him negatively. Maybe disappointed here and there when he did something perverted, or outright rude...or even when he ignored her confession that she was willing to _die_ for...

No.

Naruto was never going to return her passionate feelings for her.

She knew this, and yet... she still _hoped_. She still wanted _more_ memories of him. She wanted to see him smile more. Wanted to spend time with him. Wanted to hear him call her name.

More tears streamed down her face.

How many times has she cried over this? Over the mere fact that he would _always_ love someone else. The amount of love Hinata poured on this man was and would always be invisible. Those Naruto-shaped onigiri she used to make when she was younger drifted in her mind. Those encouraging words she'd practice saying to him and say in her quiet, stutter-filled voice before he went off on missions. Images of his back turned toward her as he flirted with another girl.

She wanted to stop.

She wanted to _stop_. Finally. There it was. She wanted to stop this heartbreaking cycle. She wanted to stop loving Uzumaki Naruto. She finally thought it, she always feared it, but it was becoming a harsh reality now. These tears pushed her back to her pre-Academy tears. It reminded her of times right after her mother had passed and she wanted to fill her heart with love again. The sort of love her mother provided her.

Maybe she could find someone else.

Suddenly her tears ceased. Just in the knick of time, for she heard and sensed someone coming down the hall.

She held her breath and quickly patted away the remainder of wetness on her face. She glanced at her mirror and paled. How pathetic can one look after they cried for a solid hour? Obviously like they were batted in the face with a tsunami, a hurricane, and punched in the eyes repetitively. She froze up when she heard a knock just outside of her room.

"Hinata." Hiashi's voice spoke form the other side of the rice-paper doors. "Your Hokage has sent word for your aid at a Council meeting. Dress formally."

"Coming, father." Hinata said, though her voice cracked a bit. She coughed to mask it and quickly.

"Do you need help?" Hiashi had surprised Hinata with his offer.

"I'm used to it now, Father." Hinata said as she walked over toward her dresser and finally pulled out the lavender kimono. It was finally time to put the silk to use-she's been wearing black the entire day, and she needed a change and a distraction.

"Alright." Hiashi's footsteps quickly informed Hinata that he was walking back to his room. Hinata pushed the paper that held the lavender silk inside and noticed that the kimono was absolutely stunning. Maybe it had more decorations than necessary...but her father _did_ mention it was a council meeting, it wouldn't hurt to look prettier than normal...

She inwardly groaned when she realized her face just wouldn't do the kimono justice. She still looked like she suffered and survived a plague.

She was about to put the lavender kimono back, when she felt something hard in it's confines. She thought it was just a piece of cardboard kept to keep the sleeves in shape, but it _was_ a lot heavier now that she thought about it. Not expecting much, she undid the string that kept the kimono together and unraveled one sleeve.

Suddenly something thumped onto the floor. She put the kimono aside, noticing how light it was all of the sudden and quickly picked up the hidden treasure.

It was a simple black leather-bound notebook.

Hinata frowned. She had found pins and colorful pendants in her mother's other kimono, but never did a kimono come with something that wasn't an accessory. The notebook seemed out of place and messy...why would her mother put this here?

She flipped it open and her eyes softened when she noticed the gentle and clean handwriting that most definitely belonged to her mother.

She flipped through the notebook, and found herself sniffing again. Her eyes lightening up when she realized there were no blank pages. The book was totally full of her mother's wonderful handwriting.

Going back to the first page of the notebook, she read the first line, and noticed it's date and instantly could tell it was a diary or a journal of some sort. Reading the first lines, she felt relaxed as imagined her mother reading it aloud to her in her head, her soft and gentle voice sounded just like those times her mother would read those folktales out loud to her. Hinata couldn't imagine her mother's voice any other way.

_Ninth Month, Day Four, Year of Tiger. 88._

_Mother and father has made it official that I will wed the clan head, Hiashi. I used to call him the boy with the ume-boshi-face because he always looked like he just ate a sour plum. I have never been so put off by a supposedly romantic idea in my life._

Hinata stopped. She had never heard her mother sound so unhappy. In her memories, she always had a kind smile and positive words to say about everyone and everything. If she had a negative thought, Hinata guessed she kept it to herself...or maybe in this journal.

She kept reading, completely forgetting about her assignment to get ready.

_I've been practicing saying his name next to mine, and I cannot help but feel sickeningly fake. I do not want to wed this man. I do not want to raise his children. I do not want to be burried next to him when I pass..._

Hinata's heart broke a little at hearing these words. She wanted to stop and burry the notebook back into the kimono and forget reading those words, but her hands kept it firmly open. Her eyes couldn't look away.

_I am very aware I have to fulfill my duties for my clan. But my heart will always belong to the first person I've ever realized I loved. _

_Inoichi Yamanaka-san_.

The moment Hinata read this daring secret, she couldn't help it.

She laughed. She covered her mouth and giggled at the revelation.

Her mother was in love with Ino-san's father?

"This is outrageous." Hinata shook her head in disbelief, not even caring about the horrible truths of her mother disliking the thought of raising a family with her own father. Her mother was writing something that was clearly felt from the heart-a complete mess of emotions.

Not far off from Hinata's own situation.

Hinata, still forgetting her official duties, found herself lying flat on her bamboo floors and propped the notebook up to read.

She went through pages and pages of her mother's deepest secrets.

She really cared for Inoichi, but much like herself, he remained blind to her affections. It was also revealed that her mother was in her late twenties when writing this notebook, but sounded exactly like a tormented teenager. She wrote about Inoichi and why he captured her heart when she was a teenager, and how he was constantly improving his skills as a ninja and how daring he was. It was strange hearing her mother's calm voice in her head get heated and passionate about this man that Hinata herself had only heard about in passing.

Has Hinata ever met Inoichi-san? Even when he came to see the Hokage, Hinata never paid much mind and only exchanged quick greetings of hello and goodbye.

Suddenly she caught site of a rather wrinkly page and her heart fell as she read the passage of her mother realizing that Inoichi was engaged to be married to a woman he truly loved.

Her mother and her...really weren't that far off from each other.

"Hinata."

Hinata jumped out of her skin when she heard her name. Her father was suddenly at the door again, his low voice rumbling in distaste by the sound of it. She realized she read at least halfway into the notebook now, and was wondering how she ended up on the floor of her room.

"What is taking you so long?" he asked. "You should call me for help if the obi is too hard for you."

Hinata suddenly sprung to action and tore off the current Kimono she was wearing and made a mad dash to put on the lavender kimono, but before she started to tear off the current kimono she had on, her father was sure to be able to recognize the noises of a kimono being disrobed. She had to give up. She was in trouble-he'd yell and she'd apologize, and she'd have to apologize to her boss, Tsunade-sama!

Dejected, she glanced at herself in the mirror, and realized she still looked _horrible_, and instantly saw her free pass. She stuffed the notebook under the lavender kimono again and went up to her door and made an act to rub her eyes roughly before sliding it open.

"I feel very ill, Chichi-ue." Hinata said in a very heavy voice. She put a hand over her mouth and coughed twice to emphasize her point.

Hiashi took a step back when realizing that Hinata didn't look presentable and nodded curtly, buying the excuse.

"Yes. I can see." He said with a sneer as he put one of his own Kimono sleeves up to his face to shy away from any stray germs radiating off of his daughter. "I'll tell the guards to send word to Hokage that you'll have to be absent. You should have told me sooner if you weren't feeling well. I'll get Chieki to make you a hot bowl of porridge."

"Oh you don't have to father." Hinata said, closing her eyes and letting her voice crack. She coughed again, amazing even herself with her brilliant performance. "I'll just go to bed early."

"Are you sure?"

Hinata weakly nodded.

"Fine." He left, and Hinata closed the door and slid to the ground realizing her lying skills had never been so perfect! She realized it must have been a negative part of her training as a Hokage's assistant-all of the emphasis to act polite and sweet in front of dignitaries who didn't deserve sincere words had definitely shaped her up to _lie_ better.

The rest of the night was spent in her warm futon, reading her mother's notebook all the way through.

When she was done with the final page, her hopes to get over Naruto had never been so high.

She knew she could do it. She knew she'd get over him at that moment, and she could still find happiness in the world. Even without the thought of true love!

Her mother did-and even had two beautiful children that she ended up loving more than her own life itself.

Her mother was still a _wonderful_ person without her first love in her life. She was an inspiration _still_, and a strong part of Hinata's identity.

Hinata clung to the notebook and faced the ceiling of her room.

"I won't love him anymore." Hinata declared in a whisper toward the spirit of her late mother. She imagined if her mother was watching her at that moment, she would feel glad. A sigh of relief at knowing her daughter wouldn't shed any more silly tears over a man who didn't even notice her. Just like her mother had accepted her own situation, and still blossomed despite her breaking heart. Her mother looked impeccable in her photos of her wedding ceremony. She even had put on a soft and theatrical smile that Hinata now knew might have held a little bit of resentment, but in the end-there was nothing but tenderness when her mother wrote of her father toward the end of her notebook.

"I'll get over him mother. And I'll find someone else to love, just like how you found a way to love father." Her voice sounded strangely cold when she said this. She felt herself feel better when she spoke them aloud, but somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew she didn't really sound true to herself. Yet, the words gave her newfound hope of a better life. And she clung to that hope like a desperate lover. She told herself she won't give up this time. She was over Naruto. Truly.

* * *

((Rokudaime Era))

Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose quickly so that nobody could see. He glanced over toward Hinata's notes to his right, and realized the council hadn't started talking about new topics yet and felt himself inwardly groan. Hinata herself was steadily loosing interest in taking repetitive notes and was blinking rapidly in a way to will interest, or at least look like she's was wide awake.

"Hokage-sama, are you listening?"

"Sure am." Naruto drawled, leaning on his rested palm and rolling his eyes. Hinata coughed into her hand to draw attention away from Naruto's rude reply.

"Fire council elders, if we could move on to more pressing subjects, the Hokage has another appointment at three."

The council elders all bristled. "Ah, yes, Hinata-san." One of them spoke. "We wouldn't want to keep your Hokage waiting, after all, what's more important than knowing if your citizens will be getting cheap energy next year if the damn of Ketten doesn't crumble?"

"These are 'if' scenarios. We are ninja-we'll react when the if scenario becomes an indefinite 'yes' or 'no'." Naruto sighed. "You're wasting my time discussing a perfectly good dam that's not seen a hair-like crack in over a decade."

"We have _just said_, that there were hair-line cracks forming on the southern border of the dam-"

"Well whatever." Naruto rolled his eyes. "Hair-line! Like I said-really unlikely it'll _crumble_ by next year. You mentioned..." he glanced over at Hinata's cleaner notes, "The petition of hiring new staff in Konohagakure's newspaper staff?" Naruto's nose wrinkled, "How is that any of your business?"

"Hokage-sama." The council member stood at his seat, "How the council is viewed by the public is very important."

"Well, you don't have to worry about any of that." Naruto closed his eyes and pressed his fingertips together, "You're making a great impression on all of us right now."

"The Hokage-sama _means_," Hinata interrupted quickly, "That the council elders may be too concerned over the impressions of the public...you've requested to discuss the Konohagakure newspaper for months now, but we've already re-staffed the newspaper with qualified, veteran Genin ninjas. The public has shown their support and overall-we've been getting better articulations from the point of view of the ninja. Not to mention Genin's writing skills took a dramatic turn for the better."

"Yes, that's all very well and all." The oldest of the members grouched, "But what about those who can't use chakra and who also live in Konoha?" he coughed into his hand. "Who is thinking about the _elders_ in this wretched village?"

Naruto slammed his fist down on the table. "You bite your tongue when talking about _my_ village."

The whole room silenced instantly. Hinata glanced over at the furious Naruto and quickly back toward the shifting faces of the council staring either at the desk or twiddling their thumbs. She sighed.

"Council elders." She said, everyone looked up at the sound of her calm voice. "We thank you for making the journey back to Konoha from the Fire Capital, and we understand your concern over the citizens of Konoha. Rest assured, the citizens are all at a peaceful stage at this moment. The citizens living in Konoha are well aware that Konohagakure has been a ninja village since it was founded, and they appreciate having both ninjas and citizens working on their newspaper. Re-staffing mere civilians is not fair for the majority of our village population."

"This is ridiculous." Snapped one elder talking to another. "Ninjas don't listen at all!"

"Ninjas are only good for giving orders." Snapped another. "And being invisible to the public's eyes." Their eyes all glared at Naruto and Hinata.

These sort of meetings from the politicians from the Fire Capital were starting to become more and more frequent. It used to be a lot more civil and calm, and arguements had meaning and reason behind it. These days they were blind to the needs of many ninjas and constantly went against every one of Naruto's policies and nindos. Then again, very recently the elders that used to be fair and understanding had been dying off like flies. The new elders that were quickly filling the position were less than thrilled to be calling Naruto 'Hokage-sama' even if Naruto was the savior of the Ninja worlds.

"If you don't like a ninja running a city, why haven't you convinced the Fire Lord to impeach me already?" Naruto taunted.

It was instant, and Naruto caught it. One or two pairs of eyes had quickly and nervously glanced over at the woman to his right. Naruto remembered Tsunade's words of warning and he felt his heart start to thunder in his chest.

Of course. It all made sense now.

"Hinata, we have our three o' clock appointment." He said quickly dismissing her from the room. Hinata bowed on cue and gathered her notes, and quickly disappeared through the door. Naruto, however, stayed put and the council elders who were started to gather their notes once Hinata was gone were stopped when they felt Naruto's gaze sweeping the room. The Hokage then leaned on the table and listened to make sure Hinata was already walking toward his office before opening his mouth.

"If the Fire Capital wants to talk to me about the civilians, I'll always be more than happy to listen, but if you want to insult the traditions of the Kage, and the lives of your fine ninjas that protected this country for centuries, you have another thing coming." Naruto threatened darkly.

They all tried to speak at once, but a gust of wind suddenly pushed them back in their seats.

"I'm not. Done. Talking." Naruto said, his hand still raised- a small Rasengan plastered the elders to their seats. "Don't make me pop this one over your heads."

The council instantly shut their gaping mouths.

Naruto let the rasengan die out in his hands and he narrowed his eyes at the eldest of the council members. "You obviously want the ninjas still living in your country-or else you wouldn't even think twice about stepping on the foot of the some of your most esteemed clans...particularly the Hyuuga clan."

The council members shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"Hokage-sama..."

"You've wanted to impeach me the moment you took office didn't you? You're afraid of Ninja clans disappearing once I'm out of office." Naruto barked loudly, and he was pleased to see a few of the newer council members flinch at his vivacity.

"We realize you have support from the..._Konoha_ council and your fine array of Jounin shinobi. The fact that you have a Hyuuga working for you convinces us enough that there are a fine number of men that have faith in you. We wouldn't _dare_ dream of impeaching you-not that we could, anyway." One of the more experienced Council members said slowly, making Naruto's narrow in distaste. It wasn't the first time Naruto heard of people calling Hinata's position as a way of the Konoha council boosting his popularity amongst the Fire Council members. This was the first time he heard from the Fire Council themselves that they saw Hinata's position more as a _threat_. Naruto had one of the strongest clan's _heiress_ as his secretary, and the fire council took that as a way of the Hyuuga saying that they supported Naruto indefinitely. So much so-that they allowed heir prized _princess_ to be bossed around by the village's jinchuuriki.

Naruto rolled his eyes and shook his head. Unbelievable. "Hinata became my secretary because she was the most qualified."

"She's the Hyuuga _heiress_." One of the elders whispered to another, quite loudly-obviously dying to be heard. "There is no way a respectable ninja clan would let their heiress work for someone else-much less a secretary position if they didn't want her _spying_ on us."

That was a news flash. Naruto's eyes turned crimson for a split second but he sucked in his breath and instead ground a fist into the fine polished wood of the meeting room table. Everyone's spines snapped to attention-sitting straight up in their seats as if their backs were on fire as they heard the wood chip and splinter underneath the Hokage's massive hands.

"I'd like everyone to calm down. Hinata is not here to spy on you."

"Ninjas spy on _everybody_." One of the Fire council members was bold enough to say.

"Yes, that's your _specialty_." Sighed another member of the council.

"Another reason having a Ninja ruler is ridiculously...old fashioned." Scoffed yet another voice. Naruto felt his muscles tense. He realized he might have made a mistake dismissing Hinata a bit early.

"We have a ninja ruler for a ninja village that doesn't even want to start _wars_ anymore. Why is it that we don't have someone more like...the _original_ Rokudaime, Rokudaime Danzo here to represent the ninja population? I say we council members should ask for a range of advisors to come into the meeting next time we visit..." One council member Naruto hadn't even noticed had the nerve to suggest.

"Who _are_ you?" Naruto snapped, his anger getting the best of him. "I've never even seen your face before." He growled. "Fire Nation is going to _shit_ if they don't even introduce their newest members of their council to me before stepping foot in my building."

The new council member that spoke out of turn was immediately glared at by the rest of his council.

"And to mention the name Danzo..." Naruto hissed, and was simply out of words as he shook his head at the council. "It's like you're purposefully trying to test my patience." He said in a rather level voice. "That must be a new low even for you guys."

For that, the council felt legitimately flustered. Being called rude by the infamously rude Rokudaime Hokage would hurt anyone's uptight pride. The whole room shifted uncomfortably and the new council member that was once looking ever so smug wore a worried expression on his face as he studied the ninja before him.

"Hokage-sama, we apologize..." the newest member said waving his hands about. It was then that the council member suddenly realized that the man before him was a sage _and_ the jinchuuriki. There was no way he even had a lick of a chance if the man decided to fight him with brut force.

"Don't bother." Naruto held up a hand and stepping toward the exit, "You've made your motives crystal clear-you wish you had had some legitimate control over a ninja village-but with the ninjas on my side, you're just a whining group of _saps_. You wait till everyone in Konoha hears about this." Naruto said turning his back on the fire council and storming out of the meeting.

"Will you want this news to spread, though?" one of the wiser elders asked, standing up from his seat. "Do you want Konohagakure to know that the fire council doesn't think you're fit to run their village?"

"I'm perfectly fit." Naruto scowled.

He marched out of the office, and was instantly gratified by hearing the council members instantly fire up in debate once he left the room. Naruto met up with Hinata on the far end of the hall, she was already one-foot in the reception area of the Hokage towers, where her office was.

"What took you so long?" Hinata asked worriedly. "What did you do? You didn't use Rasengan, did you?"

"What? No." Naruto lied nervously, shaking his head and waving his arms about, but Hinata kept up her suspicious look and even started to cross her arms; the gig was up. "Ok, yeah I did. But they were being a bunch of _bullies_, Hinata-I mean, did you hear how they talked down to me? I'm the freaking _Hokage_-where do they get those _balls_..."

"You're right." Hinata surprised him, and he saw her small hands ball up to fists. "They have no right talking to you that way, it's really, really upsetting." She said, anger quickly switching to her well-known concerned face as she looked to the side. "I wonder if the Fire Lord knows about this."

"Do you think we should talk to him?" Naruto said, feeling extremely tired at the thought of seeing the Fire Lord. He was always forced to drink to the brim of death when he was with that old coot. Hinata herself suddenly looked like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders as she scribbled something down onto her clipboard.

"I'm going to schedule a visit for us to see him next month. The Fire Lord will clear his schedule for you." Hinata quickly assured, and sighed dramatically after she wrote in her note. Naruto followed suit, his shoulders slumping.

"Why is being Hokage so _haaaarrrddd_?" he whined and slumped over.

"You _wanted_ this job." Hinata said pointing her pen at him.

"Hey I'll trade you positions for a day-you be Hokage and I'll be your assistant." Naruto said, perking up.

"That _would_ be a nice holiday..." Hinata said jokingly as she flipped through her clipboard.

"Hahaha." Naruto feigned a laugh as he rested his hands behind his head and walked into his office. He liked joking around with Hinata, she either took it too seriously, or showed her strange sense of humor. He was starting to realize he _liked_ strange things.

He went over toward his desk, hopped over it, and crashed into his sturdy and comfortable Hokage chair. He twirled around it for a while as Hinata shut the door behind her and walked up to the side of his desk.

"Hokage-sama." Hinata stopped him on his fifth rotation on his office chair. "The council's behavior is extremely distressing. I can't help but think of what Tsunade-sama had told me before I took on official position as head Hokage's assistant three years ago..."

"Shoot." Naruto waved for her to continue.

"She told me to let council members always think that I was on their side-even more so than yours-during meetings. She said it was proper decorum to keep out of their way." She said honestly, clutching the clipboard to her chest and frowning. "I'll call her in tomorrow so we could discuss it with her."

"Good idea." Naruto said, he had instantly fell silent when she mentioned this, and wondered why in the world Tsunade hadn't told him about this earlier either. It was customary that the Godaime still would hold social and political power, even the title of Hokage was hers to keep till death. He just always assumed she'd instantly trust him with her secrets as soon as he took office so he could maybe take away some of that burden of being Hokage for life. Naruto was the one who convinced Tsunade to be Hokage way back when he was a kid...why wasn't Tsunade showing the same support for him? It was obvious Tsunade was _still_ keeping things from the current Hokage, and Naruto briefly wondered if he should be offended or worried.

"The council has been replaced by completely new members since you took office." Hinata continued to speak, not realizing Naruto's zoned-off look as he mulled over the fact that Tsunade was keeping something from him again. "The last original members of the council were the ones that acknowledged you in your current position as Hokage-and the last one died the day before you took office."

Naruto frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Look at it this way." Hinata said, furrowing her brows. "Why did Hokage-sama force you to take on a Genin team even before you completed a full year of Jounin service?"

"Because...I'm..._awesome_?" Naruto grinned despite himself.

"Hokage-sama." Hinata closed her eyes wearily. She was trying to tell him something important.

"Ok, ok, I know, we're having a serious conversation." He put on his most serious looking face. "I'm ready."

Hinata's lips wobbled, not wanting to smile, but she lost the battle. "How could you stay so charismatic even when we might be facing the destruction of Hokage traditions as we know it?"

"Have you met me?" Naruto said, keeping his serious face. "I'm _da bomb_." He whispered in a dramatic voice.

Hinata covered her lower face with her handy clipboard to hide her toothy grin. "I'm trying to be serious."

"So am I." Naruto shrugged, keeping his serious face up in tact.

"You're making it really hard for me to believe you."

"Believe it!" Naruto pumped a fist in the air, and this time, Hinata let a giggle slip out from behind her clipboard.

"Knock knock." Someone said from the other side of the office door.

"You're three o' clock, Hokage-sama." Hinata said the obvious, her bloodlimit had instantly activated once she heard the voice, and crossed the office quickly to open the door for the ninja on the other side of the door.

Kakashi's smiling face peered into the office. There were several masked ANBU officers standing at attention behind him. "Heeelllo." He waved his fingers cheerfully.

"You're early." Naruto said in a surprised tone and even checked the clock above the office door. "It's three ten. Why are you so _early_?"

"I scheduled the appointment at two, he's roughly an hour late." Hinata informed. Kakashi laughed at this pleasantly as if it was all a good joke.

"Saves me from making up an excuse." Kakashi said sauntering into the office with his hands embedded in his pockets.

"I'm not surprised." Naruto rolled his eyes, "Come on in you guys." He gestured over toward the ANBU officers, who obediently walked in with their masks still in place. When Hinata closed the door to the office, one of the ANBU soldiers removed the mask and looked over at Hinata and waved.

"Kiba, pay attention." Naruto sighed. He saw how Hinata eagerly went up to him to exchange a quick and harmless high-five, and still felt a little bit jealous.

"I haven't been back in Konoha for a month! Give me a break!" Kiba said, "And this is what we always did when we went on separate missions and came back home safe. It's sort of a team-8 only thing."

"I do that with my first team too." One of the ANBU's butted in.

"Me too." The other ANBU informed.

"We're getting side-tracked!" Naruto interrupted quickly before he felt left out. "Kakashi, mission report." He ordered and held out his hand.

"Hmmmm. Bossy." Kakashi commented before taking a scroll from the inside of his jacket and tossing it toward the Hokage, who caught it quickly.

"I heard you got a _date_, Hinata." Kiba instantly was back to talking back to Hinata as casually as if on an outing.

"H-how..?" Hinata's old stutter was _back_.

"Heard from a little birdie!" Kiba snickered, "So who's the lucky guy? Anyone I know?"

"You _guys_." Kakashi was the one this time to interrupt the two. "You're in front of the Hokage."

"Yeah, _Hinata_." Kiba quickly pushed the blame onto Hinata. "Stop distracting us!"

Hinata rolled her eyes and stood at attention next to him, facing her Hokage.

Naruto dutifully read the mission report in silence.

His brows furrowed. "Three Iwagakure ninjas cornered you?" he read aloud at a strange part of the mission report.

"They were looking for information-nothing threatening, sir." One of the ANBU soldiers supplied helpfully.

"No bloodshed." Kiba agreed.

Naruto frowned and pressed his hands on his lips. "Hinata, get me the mission report for team San-ju."

"Yes, Hokage-sama." Hinata bowed and excused herself briefly, coming back with a green scroll that she handed politely to her Hokage. Naruto unfolded it and pointed to a particular part in another mission report.

"Huh." Naruto frowned. "That's really weird."

"Hokage-sama?" Hinata pressed.

"Probably nothing." Naruto smiled quickly and shook his head. "I'm getting _paranoid_. Hinata, call my advisors, would you?"

"Hai." Hinata bowed and excused herself from the room for the second time.

"Now where were we." Naruto brushed off the incident like it was nothing. "Oh right, your mission. It was a success, good job. Ok, bye now." Naruto tried saying this with a straight face but it was painfully clear something was wrong.

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked as the rest of his team took the dismissal to heart like good little ANBU soldiers and filed out the door. Kiba sent one last look over his shoulder and waved before following his ANBU peers out the door.

"Kakashi-sensei, should we wait for you outside?" Kiba asked.

"Go ahead without me." Kakashi said, his one eye smiling. Kiba nodded and closed the door on the two. "So where's the fire?" Kakashi asked Naruto who just shrugged.

"Just a hunch, but I think the Tsuchikage might be in trouble." Naruto said honestly.

"How did you get that from just a peaceful meetup from stray Iwagakure ninjas?

"Simple." Naruto said, "The last Kage Summit was a month ago...and the Tsuchikage didn't look too good, get my drift?"

"Ah, you're jumping to conclusions because of his age. The Tsuchikage never looks...well these days." Kakashi said calmly.

"Eh, yeah, I know." Naruto said looking annoyed, "But he's been having trouble trying to get out of office for a while. None of his ninjas want him to leave...and well-his successor isn't getting her due respect."

"Her." Kakashi emphasized. "Iwagakure ninjas are still pretty set on traditions. No Tsuchikage has been a female yet."

"Thus the reason Tsuchikage was saying it's a bitch trying to convince his ninjas that she's the best candidate." Naruto shrugged. "It's just a hunch though-but I've been noticing Iwagakure ninjas pop up in a lot of my mission reports." Naruto explained. "It might be nothing though."

"Yes." Kakashi nodded. "Hopefully we'd get official _word_ if the Tsuchikage was replaced, by either the council of Earth Country or the Rock Lord."

"Like the Rock Lord has ever been on time. He's worse than you." Naruto sniffed. "And that's saying something."

Kakashi nodded, knowing full well of the Rock Lord's inability to stay on time with things. The Rock Lord himself was getting ancient and dying off. Naruto wondered if this was a trend; a lot of important officials were starting to die off all at once. He knew it was mere coincidence, but couldn't help but feel uncomfortable about it. The Council members were being filled with a bunch of idiots in the Fire Nation, that was for sure-he wondered if the Earth Council had it a bit better.

"Should I send word to Rock Lord with one of my dogs?" Kakashi offered. "I'll tell them it's urgent."

"Rock Lord?" Naruto scoffed. "I just said he was unreliable. Send word for the Tsuchikage. Say it's urgent that he contact me right away because he's freaking me out. First he was saying he's looking for a new successor that his ninjas don't like-and the next second it sounds like his ninjas want to come over to Konoha to hang out? Sounds fishy to me."

Kakashi nodded, it was a good hunch and he was impressed his student who used to be reknown for being dense caught it so quickly. He summoned Pakkun, who had turned a little old and blind in one eye, but still was one of the fastest and wisest and the Tsuchikage would appreciate that. Pakkun was honored for the mission, and immediately left with a bow and a smirk from his whiskered muzzle.

"Good work." Naruto nodded toward his old sensei, "I'll take care of it from here, thanks."

Kakashi smiled underneath his mask. "Don't overwork yourself."

Naruto smirked. "Part of the job, I'm afraid."

Kakashi nodded and in a puff of smoke, was gone.

* * *

**((Godaime Era))**

"Pass the shears, please." Shizune asked while extending a hand. Mika, though closer to Shizune, continued to ignore the plea and continue doodling nonsense on a notepad and lightly nudged Hinata to draw her away from her organizing the next summit's meeting folders. Hinata reached over Mika with a sigh, picked up the pair of scissors that was put in a pencil holder _right_ next to the Chuunin, and got up from her seat to pass the object to Shizune.

Shizune glanced up, and frowned when she realized it was Hinata who rose from her seat to give her the simple shears.

"Mika, you could _lend a hand_." Shizune said through grit teeth. "Hinata's busy with important file-work."

"Hinata-chan took care of it even before I could react." Mika said breezily. "Hinata-chan, you're the _best_." She gushed briefly looking up from her project to give Hinata a cute little wink. Hinata didn't even react, she was getting used to how Mika treated her. She felt like she was back to Academy days and people convinced her it was totally ok if they copied from her homework.

"Mika." Shizune started in a very sharp tone. Mika finally looked up from her work with a cross expression on her face. "You can try to act more professional. And don't call Hinata 'chan', she's your senior. If you must, you can call her 'senpai'."

"Senpai?" Mika looked like she smelt something funny the minute she uttered the new honorific. Senpai meant 'senior', and it was now cripplingly clear that Mika just didn't see Hinata that way-even if Hinata _was_ a Jounin. "We're in the same position, though."

"But she's been in his position longer." Shizune stressed.

"I still get higher points than her." Mika said this all as if Hinata wasn't even in the room. She glanced over at Hinata just to let her know she was indeed aware of this as she said, "No offense."

Shizune sucked in her lips and decided not to argue. They gave Mika higher poitns on purpose-to motivate _Hinata_...but now that Mika was also part of the office. She was literally dragging them down as well as pissing them off. Who knew getting Hinata worked up would also drive her nuts too? Hinata had a lot of patience though, she seemed totally out of it lately-working harder or zoning off to space with a blank look on her face.

"Hinata, let's go to lunch." Shizune suddenly exclaimed.

"Oh good _idea_. I'm starved." Mika said brightly, she started to collect the cosmetics she had strewn around Hinata's desk into her bag.

"No, just Hinata and me. Seniors only. You stay behind and keep up the great work." Shizune said in a bland voice, she was already gathering her things and her purse and was waving Hinata to get out of the room.

"Shizune-san, really..." Hinata looked merely tired at this petty power-play. "Let her come with us." She was begging Shizune not to start another drama-fest where Mika would only cry and complain for the whole day and make her ears ring like crazy. She knew it was normal for Shizune to get upset, but Hinata was just _tired_ and unable to support her.

"No." Shizune said firmly. "And if you make a bad impression on Tsunade-sama, or leave Hinata's desk a _mess again_. I'll make sure Naruto knows that you actually _dyed_ your hair that ridiculous magenta color."

"Nuh-uh!" Mika said in disbelief, "You _wouldn't_!"

"Wouldn't I? Come on, Hinata." Shizune said putting a hand on Hinata's shoulder and pushing her out of the reception area.

"We'll get you something." Hinata said in a monotone voice, but Shizune pinched her and shook her head.

"What are you _doing_?" Shizune hissed at Hinata who remained silent.

"This is _so_ unfair!" Mika's voice said, steadily rising so that her senior assistants could hear as they left the room. "How am I supposed to watch over the reception room on my own? I've never done it before! Let me switch places with Hinata! Hinata-come on!" there was a pause for effect, but when her seniors didn't look back she called out desperately, "I want tempura! Tempura and potstickers, you hear? Don't come back if you can't find any!"

"She thinks she can just _walk all over you_." Shizune hissed, angrilly, "Why do you let her do that? She's your _rival_, fight back a bit!" She begged, thinking of the way Sakura and Ino treated each other. They were both Kunoichi of the same age as Hinata, and yet acted leagues immature and petty-and she wished Hinata would do that too with Mika just so she could see Mika squirm.

"Why put in the extra effort?" Hinata sighed, exhausted. Shizune noticed the girl had been sighing a lot more lately, and it was no secret that Hinata used to excuse herself after a long day of work tolerating Mika's abuse to _cry_. Shizune was worried about the girl-she wasn't handling this 'rival' thing in a healthy way like Sakura and Ino naturally did.

"Are you ok? I know it's been a tough month..." Shizune said patting Hinata's shoulder.

"No, I feel great." Hianta said in a voice that made her statement sound like an outright lie. She sounded drained and without any emotion. Her eyes remained locked on the road, and didn't even offer an assured smile toward her mentor.

"Hinata." Shizune tried to pry, but Hinata shook her head.

"I'm sorry, I'm just getting really spacey lately." Hinata said shaking her head and making a show to hide her eyes behind her bangs. "Where would you like to eat?" she brushed her problems aside and asked while staring off toward the road.

Shizune studied her for another second before accepting the change in conversation, she was already pushing the girl enough, she needed to give her the space that she was so clearly begging for. "Well, what about...soba?"

"No." Hinata quickly said, surprising Shizune. Hinata realized her mistake too, and looked up in shock as well-, "I mean, we can-but...no noodles. I think it's too cold for soba anyway." She made up. Soba was normally a cold-served noodle for hot summer days, and it was getting pretty chilly in Konoha lately as the sun started to dim and the cold clouds set up camp above their heads.

"You're right." Shizune smiled, happy to see Hinata drifting away from her indecisive habits. "How about some traditional wa-shoku? Or comfort food-snacks?"

"Oden?" Hianta suggested a perfect combination of traditional japanese dinner food, and winter comfort food. It was the only kind of fish-food that she tended to like-probably because it didn't look or smell or taste like fish.

"Perfect." Shizune smiled. "I know just the stall that serves the _best_ Oden."

The two of them sped up their pace when they both smelt rain in the air. Just a glance at the sky and even the children that were playing in the streets were ducking into shades or back into their homes to play it safe. Shizune and Hinata were lucky that just when they entered the Oden shop, the hot surroundings and warm comfort food was there to greet them just as the rain was starting to fall frantically from the sky.

Hinata twisted toward the door and blinked, seeing the sheet of rain just as they ducked through the curtains of the Oden-stall. Blowing a breath of relief she sat down on a stool and saw that Shizune already ordered a bowl of rice for both of them and the Oden-man took off the wooden lids that covered up the oden in front of the women so they could reach over the Oden stall and pick out their favorite fish-cakes themselves.

Oden stalls were especially popular when it started turning nippy out, but fortunately there was only one other customer taking up a stall that day. Hinata glanced at the stranger before reaching over and taking a boiled egg out of the oden stew and putting it on her plate.

"Oh, the egg. You beat me to it!" the stranger to Hinata's left boldly spoke to her. Hinata whipped around and looked into the eyes of a softly smiling man. Another glance at the stranger, and Hinata had noticed that he was a shinobi off duty wearing comfortable clothes but kept his hitai-ate, or foreheadprotector, dangling around his neck much like how she used to sport her hitai ate when she was an active nin. The man also triggered some sort of face in her memory-she had met this man before but a name wasn't rising to her lips like they normally would have. She guessed the man must have been an ANBU, for she felt comfortable with faces-and the man before her was definitely a face she hadn't seen in office...unless he was wearing a mask.

She blinked her distracting thoughts out of her head, and scooted the plate toward the stranger. "O-oh! Please, take it-I don't mind." Hinata said kindly.

The man laughed and shook his head. "Nah, I was only joking. Hinata-san, it's me...come on, you recognize me don't you?"

Hinata blinked at the man again and cocked her head to the side. "I'm...sorry..."

"Ah." The man wagged a finger at her. "Here let me remind you-" he pulled up his hair into a quick ponytail and also squeezed his eyes shut. "'I'm going to win the manly-man contest! Hinata-let's spar!'" he quoted, and instantly Hinata remembered a time when _she_ was forced into a boyish contest proving her 'manliness'-throughout the entire game Hinata was desperate for _anyone_ to hear her that she wasn't actually a boy! She was a girl! With a really short hair cut!

In an instant Hinata was laughing alongside a stranger with a similar past.

"You're-one of Kiba-kun's friends." Hinata finally recognized. "The one that always challenged him."

"Yep. That's me." Grinned the man, offering a rather handsome smile. Hinata quickly glanced over at Shizune briefly and instantly regreted it when she saw Shizune grinning back at her slyly. She knew that smile-it was the same smile she would get from her girlfriends whenever they caught her talking to Naruto. The stranger and Hinata linked hands for a quick hand-shake. "It's Keisuke."

"Keisuke-kun, of course." Hinata instantly tacked on the honorific and smiled. Keisuke blushed a bit-and Hinata caught it the minute it reached his ears, and found herself softly smiling.

"Boy, let me tell ya-and I hope this doesn't come off as really creepy but...I can't believe I used to think you were a boy. You're far from boyish now." Keisuke said bashfully as he scratched his cheek and looked quickly away to the side.

Hinata felt the onslaught of a blush coming, but instead of instinctively bashing it down, she let it rise to her face and flood her cheeks a tender red.

"T-thank you." She even stuttered a bit. She smiled at him, and felt her heart rising with hope.

Hope for a new love.

* * *

**To be Continued...**

A/N: For anyone who has questions on some of my terminology PLEASE don't be afraid to ask! I'm really unaware when I'm being vague on something that's Japanese-y. I realized, for example, that many people won't know what 'Oden' is-so I'll draw a quick picture of it and posted it on my archive of our own site (later), (If you read/watch One Piece I hope you know what Oden is, in One Piece's first major movie-it was ALL about an Oden chef named Ganzo-no joke, look it up it's a really fun movie). For those of you who are on FFnet, think of how Ichiraku ramen is like-now imagine eating a dish of hot fish-cakes in a light broth? Sounds good for winter right? Well that's Oden, and it's my favorite winter dish.

Also: Chichi-Ue is a very formal way to say 'father'. That's like...how prinesses in period-dramas address their own fathers. "Chichi' is still used in formal occasions in Japan, but nobody actually calls their dad 'chichi' anymore...much less 'chichi-ue' unless you're being sarcastic or silly. But Hinata's using it to show utmost respect toward her father-and showing off how uptight Hyuugas are about tradition. When I heard Hanabi call her father 'Chichi-ue' in the manga, I was all 'gawd, really? What an uptight family'...and the translated version just didn't have the same effect on me. So yeah-that might confuse people, but I feel these sort of things are necessary even in English fanfiction.


	4. Chapter 4

**The Fifth and Sixth Jidai**

So―overall summary:

Rokudaime Era:

Naruto has a crush on Hinata, but after a bold move on his part―he decides to keep things professional. Hinata's feelings for her Hokage remain loyal, but she doesn't seem to have romantic feelings for anybody. The Fire Council members are starting to feel bold against the current Rokudaime, while hints that the Hyuuga may be involved are resurfacing.

Godaime Era:

Hinata gets a rival, both as a secretary and as a person who wants Naruto's attention. This rival, Mika, pushes her toward the edge as well as Hinata's resolution to live through the experiences of her late mother. Using both motivators, Hinata starts to 'move forward' and abandons her love for Naruto, the final push-factor being a new beau, Keisuke.

A/N: The beginning part of this chapter may be the least interesting party of my entire story to most people-but it's the one that pretty much outlines the basic plot of my story, and I get to go on and on about politics. I love love loved writing this, but re-reading it has made me realize that a lot of the back story may not make solid sense for people who hasn't read the recent Naruto chapters.

Oh, also-if you're not 'feeling' this story, that's totally fine! Good for you! Find ANOTHER NaruHina story to review, hell-Fan Fiction dot net is FULL OF EM~!

* * *

((Rokudaime Era))

The flourescent lights buzzed and blinked to life one by one making a train track of light down the ever expanding hallway. At the far end of the hall, a sliding door that was heavily bedazzled with polished red stones spelled out the kanji for the word 'fire'. When the very last flourescent light finally reached the important looking passageway, a single set of footsteps started to click and clack down the hall.

"This way, Hokage-sama." The woman's crisp voice addressed kindly and let her hand gesture toward the large kanji sign on the door as two figures-who's footsteps were never heard in the lonely hallway-stopped to bow and thank the woman for her assistance. The said woman reached over and tugged on the handle of the door quickly and slid it open, making a point to keep her heeled toe over the opened door to instruct them to head in before her. The two quiet figures finally addressed their presence with clacks of their own wooden soles, and entered the large palace of a room.

"Heeeeey, Uzumaki!" a voice crooned the moment the two ninjas entered the door. "Ah, and our pretty Hyuuga! What a PLEASURE! HIC!" he man who boomed loudly had ladies hanging off of him and liquor pouring off of him in visible _sweat_. The lord of Fire had never looked so crippled in destructive power and intoxication; he really should have been ashamed.

Naruto glanced over at his assistant, who drew a remarkable face of indifference at this rather crippling scene. He was always amazed by how stoic and emotionless Hinata could get at these sort of times, he himself was embarrassed and didn't know how to shut his open mouth. He swore one of the girls that had dislodged herself from kissing the Fire Lord's neck had been no older than _thirteen_.

Naruto outwardly grimaced when the Fire Lord let out a loud burp while waving them forward. Hinata barely blinked an eye; instead she turned and nodded to the Fire Lord's secretary kindly in an unspoken 'thank you'. The lady in question nervously glanced at her Fire Lord and said in a murmured voice that only Hinata was to hear.

"I'm terribly sorry, Hyuuga-san, I warned him of your meeting..."

Hinata touched the Fire Lord secretary's shoulder. "Mikiko-san, we've got it from here." She said, though her stoic and emotionless face wasn't the normal comforting sight that Mikiko was used to. She glanced at her Fire Lord for one last time, bowed her head and disappeared down the hallway, her heels signaling she was literally dashing away to leave the scene. Naruto surprised Hinata as he leaned forward to close the door himself and gave Hinata a pointed look.

"Stay here. Don't talk to him." He said. "Not when he's like this."

"What brings you two here? Partaaaay?" the Fire Lord drunkenly asked. "I didn't see an invitation." He said and then started to address Hinata openly. "Hey, darling-can you? I'm a little dry..." he said gesturing his rather large sake-cup that looked more like a rice bowl. He held it up toward her, but Hinata was following her Hokage's example and pointedly ignoring the Fire Lord's pleas.

"Fire Lord." Naruto griped, anger getting the best of him. "Don't call her 'darling', right? This is an official meeting. Hinata's my secretary, not yours."

"And that is a P-I-T-Y. _PITY_!" the Fire Lord smacked his knee and smiled. "You've got yourself a looker there, Hokage!"

Hinata tensed behind her Hokage, and Naruto could feel that blush from his face betraying his angered look he was pointedly giving the Fire Lord.

"I'd―HIC―trade her for Mikiko any day." The Fire Lord's rice-bowl-like sake cup was then promptly filled by another young looking thing and he leaned forward to kiss the girl in thanks before taking the now heavy bowl and lifting it to his lips.

Naruto grit his teeth loudly, he only calmed down when a sudden hand rested over his forearm and applied just that little bit of pressure. He turned toward Hinata, who gave him a stern glare.

"Right." He muttered, before walking up to the Fire Lord. "Fire Lord―I've come to inform you about a few troubling incidents that's going on."

"Fire _away_, Fire-Shadow! Hic!" The Fire Lord whipped the air with his arm in a ridiculously grand gesture meant to show some respect. But anything he did looked silly-the Fire Lord was never good company when he was this wasted.

Naruto put a hand out toward Hinata in a silent command to keep her grounded as he briskly closed the space between the Fire Lord and himself. One cold glance toward the girls told them that the party was over-not that many of them minded, they all looked exhausted themselves. The girls slinked away obediently right when Naruto reached the Fire Lord and grabbed him by the collar.

"We're going to shove some water in you, and give you a fucking-" Naruto shook his head and blew loudly from his nose, "_Shower_, and then we're going to talk about _business. _I didn't travel out of Konoha in the _dead of the night_ so that I'd have to babysit a fucking _drunk_."

"HEY!" the Fire Lord suddenly roared, smacking Naruto's hand away from his collar and pushing himself to his full height-a full two inches shorter than Naruto, who calmly folded his arms in front of his impressive chest. "I'll have you know _Hokage_-I know I treat you like a _brrrother_, but don't think for a SECOND" he screamed to emphasize, his voice breaking and a trail of drool disgustingly clung to his shaggy beard, "That you think you can boss _me_ around-if anything, I can boss _you_ around! _Ninja_. Yeah that's right-no denying that, huh? Ninja-you're supposed to follow orders! MINE! MY ORDERS!"

Naruto nodded very slowly at first as the Fire Lord started to scream himself hoarse-his mood turning for the worse. You wouldn't think for a second that this was the same Fire Lord that just a moment ago was merrily singing a tune and laughing with a gaggle of teenaged girls. The Fire Lord was red in the face now, blaring and throwing what looked like a tantrum at the Hokage. Hinata was already wincing as she saw Naruto's head bob up and down, and closed her eyes when a harsh and extremely loud 'SLAP' resonated off the Fire Lord's cheek. The slap sounded more like a clap of thunder than anything and everything happened so quickly that even Hinata's eyelids fluttered at the mere shocking impact. The Fire Lord was sprawled, dazed, and out of it, on the floor of his room after Naruto's large palm smacked him in one clean swoop right across the drunkard's face.

"Naruto-sama!" Hinata scolded in a beat. She crossed out her habit of calling him 'Hokage' and jumped right to his first name, but hadn't noticed her slip up until Naruto turned to her with that guilty look plastered on his face. He hadn't heard Hinata's voice rise like that in a while, and now-with his shoulders risen up to his ears and a guilty frown plastered over his face he almost resembled a child who had his hand caught in the cookie jar.

Hinata strode over toward him, shaking her head at him to express her disappointment and decided not to look at him from that moment on. She shook her arm out of his grasp and side stepped her Hokage to quickly push all of her attention on the man that was now drooling on the floor. She picked up the Fire Lord's head and inspected his face-noticing that the _entire_ left side of the Lord's face was already inflaming. She sucked in a short, silent breath that spoke volumes on how she felt.

"I-I'm _sorry_, Hinata―" Naruto whined, "But-he's impossible! What the hell is he doing getting drunk-I mean, we gave him a week's warning! What the hell is his-"

Hinata was shaking her head though, already instilling the silent treatment to her own boss. She was pulling out cream from the inside of her robe and started to smear it over the Fire Lord's pink and purple face.

"Ok―it's fine! Your cream works wonders, he'll probably have a small bruise at _best_."

Hinata held up a single pointer finger in the air, a silent command for him to _shut up_.

Naruto groaned and bent down next next to Hinata and pouted openly as he watched her intense profile. She had her brows knit and she was breathing deeply from her nose since her mouth was tightly clamped in a thin, even line. Even a blind man would be able to tell she was angry. It was rare for her to get this heated, and Naruto couldn't help but feel fear and just...stare.

He silently reached up and touched Hinata's arm-and wasn't surprised to see her jerk out of his grasp. He pursed his lips, realizing he really shouldn't speak but he had to anyway.

"Did you hear how he talked to me? Like I had to take...commands. He's spouting the same words the council said to me a week ago." Naruto whispered, as if lowering the volume of his voice was any better. Hinata acted like she wasn't listening though, her movements to heal the wound on the Fire Lord's face didn't slow down or lessen. Her attention was now devoutly on the Fire Lord, and she was doing a marvelous job ignoring Naruto as he inched closer to Hinata and whispered a degree louder.

"I think the Fire Lord is actually _listening_ to the Council. Can you imagine that? This is like the Earth Nation all over! It's like...a pattern!" Naruto said, his arms starting to exaggerate and expand. "Shikamaru's going to eat his words when it turns out my conspiracy theory is right! I think-I think the lords of the nation want to go to war again-but all of the Kage's adopted _my_ peaceful nindo-nobody wants to fight! Telling me to 'take orders' sounds like the war-crazed Fire Council wants me to play Captain-General to a new war or something!"

Hinata didn't respond. She didn't even _glance_ at him.

Naruto glared at the back of her head as she activated the green-blue glow to her hand to indicate that she was using medic-nin skills to let the inflammation quicken it's course to healing. She was doing a good job of acting like Naruto's urgent and much pressing words were nothing but dust in the air.

"Hinata!" Naruto hissed, even louder. "Hinata." He said now talking in his normal inside-voice. "Hinata. Hinata. Hinata. Hinata. Hinata. Hinata. Hinata. Hinata. Hinata. Hinata. Hinata. Hiiiinaaaaataaaaa."

Hinata finally stopped her ministration, got up and dusted herself off. Naruto quickly got up and immediately grabbed a hold of her shoulders. Hinata looked at him, but gave him this really _really_ nasty look that made Naruto quickly back his hands away and stuff those offending digits under his armpits.

"Uh..." he started, but Hinata held up a gentle, poised hand in the air to signal that she was finally ready to speak to him.

"_If_ he remembers that you _slapped_ him when he wakes up, you are going to apologize to him and _beg_ him not to take it personally or tell anybody. If he doesn't, we will be very _very_ lucky. But raising a hand on the Fire Lord is _exactly_ what the council can use to get you in big _big_ trouble with the Elders of Konoha." Hinata whispered in a calm and level voice, but Naruto heard the ice dripping from her _tone_. He gulped loudly and found his eyes quickly shooting to his feet, unable to stare at the disapproving look on Hinata's face. He felt like a child again-being lectured by Iruka sensei. He wanted to scowl and kick his feet about, but in front of Hinata, he felt he had lost that right completely.

"I know." Naruto mumbled, dejected. His eyes carefully lifted up from the ground and saw that it was clear and ok for him to look back at Hinata again. She was back to crossing her arms and just giving him a tired look.

"Look." Hinata finally breathed a sigh, "You have every right to be angry. I am very upset as well. The way the Fire council is acting is detrimental. But the Fire _Lord _supported you when you were put into office. He is our ally. He might be spouting extremely offensive things right now, but he is _drunk_, just like you informed him earlier. You could perhaps remember this man is also a drunk that's never seen a single day of training in his life. A slap like that could have made him lose his _teeth_-you're lucky he has a thick brain...and that most of his teeth has already fallen out." Hinata muttered the last bit, and it made Naruto snicker a bit, but another harsh look from Hinata made him freeze and then look back down at his feet again.

"You're lucky the swelling's gone." Hinata finally ended her speech and side stepped to show Naruto that the Fire Lord was dozing soundly-only a slight redness remained on his once-puffy face. Naruto sighed in relief as well and shook his head in guilt.

"I...I'm really sorry. I couldn't..." Naruto started, but sighed, knowing that he needed to control his temper better-especially around those who weren't ninjas.

"It's ok." Hinata sighed, finally going to his side to support him again. "I understand. He was being...impossible. But if you want to hit someone and not make a mark this time." She reached over and tapped at a spot at the base of Naruto's neck-making a bold move to touch actual skin. Naruto felt her fingertips slip over his robe's high collar and brush a spot where his hair line ended and the back of his neck was exposed. "There's a spot right here that can knock out a person with very little force."

"You're _scary_ sometimes, Hinata." Naruto's eyes widened at his secretary, who he realized was very, very close.

Hinata stepped away from him and gave him a gentle smile, a Hinata-like smile that instantly calmed his heart. "Then don't make me angry."

"I won't. Ma'am. Never. Never. Nope." Naruto shook his head.

"Pick him up." Hinata ordered in a much kinder tone.

"Yes sir―I mean, ma'am. Lady. Whatever. _Damn_." Naruto rubbed the back of head briskly before waddling in front of the Fire Lord for good footing and bending down to pick the up the man bridal-style.

* * *

((Godaime Era))

Shizune and Tsunade noticed the swift and rather dramatic change in character once Hinata got her 'rival'.

First Hinata turned cold and almost sickeningly ill when she was put in a position where she was constantly compared to Mika. It didn't take long for Shizune to find out Hinata was _crying_ her frustrations away, but before she could console her, Hinata suddenly stopped her mopey parade. After a month of Mika joining the Hokage crew, Hinata had gradually toughened up around Mika, even scoring equal scores with the girl. They gave Mika generous points for a reason, and even their unfair grading system didn't stop Hinata from practically brushing shoulders with Mika in her skill to keep all of her previous shy habits at bay. Hinata Hyuuga had transformed, and Tsunade and Shizune were extremely amazed at how brilliantly their plans had worked. It wouldn't be long until Hinata was securing the spot for Naruto for sure.

"I can't believe how big my pores have gotten." Mika sighed as she stared at her compact mirror.

"Excuse me." Hinata announced politely as she set files down on her own desk that she was unfortunate enough to _share_ with Mika.

"I think being in this stuffy office is making me lose my youth." Whined the girl. She turned toward Hinata, "Do I still look cute? Be honest."

"Honestly?" Hinata said and turned toward her and gave her a blank stare."You would look _so_ _much _cuter if you helped me with these documents."

Shizune snorted from behind her own stack of documents at the honest rebuttle. Tonton oinked in agreement and said something in pig-lingo that made Shizune outright guffaw before she slapped a hand over her mouth and pulled all of her attention toward her work at hand.

"Oh psh, Hinata." Mika dismissed her. "Shizune-senpai, can you honestly tell me if I've gotten uglier?"

"Get back to your _work_ Mika. We're not paying you to fret over yourself." Shizune's head peered out over the large stack of documents.

"I can't stand being here when I could just be out there making _progress_ with Naruto-chan." Sighed the Chuunin girl who twirled a lock between her fingers. "Don't you think we'd make the cutest couple, Hinata?" she asked toward her neighbor who was already going through the documents diligently.

"Hm?" Hinata glanced at the girl, and shrugged, "I suppose. You two _are_ rather...loud."

Shizune was surprised by how calm Hinata was becoming.

"Right? And we're both really funny. And not to mention _cuuuute_." Mika smiled and unclipped her compact mirror again and posed a cute pouty face at her reflection.

"Though I personally think Naruto-kun is going to end up with Sakura-san." Hinata said all of the sudden.

A strange silence filled the Hokage's waiting room. Thankfully no other ninjas were there to witness Mika's dark clouds spreading all around the office like the presence of the grim reaper. Shadows fell on everything, and Shizune swore she was able to see her _breath_.

"Don't even _joke_ about that." hissed Mika.

"I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Mika-san. I'm sorry." Hinata apologized breezily, her eyes still skimming over the documents, and her apology not sounding very apologetic at all.

"You know how I feel about Naruto-chan...and if you ever mention _her_ name again..."

"Who? Sakura-san?" Hinata finally looked away from her documents to look at her neighbor. "Oh please, they're best friends. They've got to have _some_ chemistry going on."

Shizune was surprised at the blunt words spilling out of Hinata's mouth. It was as if all of Hinata's inner thoughts that she had denied all her life were finally being verbally expressed. The room felt even _colder_. And when Shizune looked at Hinata's straight, emotionless face, she felt _a little worried._

"Hinata." Mika snapped. "Be real. I know you don't like me very much, but you're being a real _bitch_ right now."

"I'm not saying these things to hurt you, I'm simply being realistic."

"You know, this..." she gestured toward Hinata's face, "is _exactly_ why you don't have a boyfriend." Mika said suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Hinata laughed a humorless laugh that sounded almost challenging. Shizune caught a look in Hinata's eyes that said 'oh _please_'. It was then that Shizune wondered for a brief moment if there was someone else in Hinata's life right now that was causing this strange shift in her behavior.

"You're cold." Mika said with an innocent little shrug. "And kind of a major downer. I can help you there." She leaned in to whisper so that Shizune wouldn't hear her say, "Get laid." with a mean smirk to boot.

Hinata was faster than Mika could even blink, and before Shizune could jump in to interfere the onslaught of blood. Hinata had swiftly hit a sweet spot on the back of Mika's neck, and Mika fell off her chair and loudly landed on her face-unconscious.

"Hinata!" Shizune gasped jumping on her feet.

"I'm so sorry." Hinata blinked, looking at her own hand as if not understanding what just happened herself. "Oh no!" Hinata picked up Mika's lifeless body, and hissed in empathic pain at the sight of the girl's bleeding nose.

"Great." Shizune sighed, "We wont hear the end of _this_ in a while."

Hinata groaned herself. "Shizune-san, I'm so sorry. I'll understand if you...have to fire me."

"Are you kidding?" scoffed Shizune. "I'm just surprised I wasn't the first one to hit her. She's been asking for a swift kick in the rear since day one."

Hinata picked up the girl even with the strains of her kimono limiting her movements and hoisted her back into her seat. She picked out a handkerchief in the pocket of her obi, and dabbed the blood that was streaming down the girl's face away.

"Huh? What _happened_?"

Hinata's whole body froze once recognizing the voice. She closed her eyes and wondered if the gods were laughing at her from the heavens.

"Wow, Mika's wiped out!" a little girl's voice shouted. Hinata turned around to see Naruto and his three genin standing and staring at her as she was dabbing the blood off Mika's face. Hinata paled. Naruto looked worried as he stared at the unconscious Mika, while his three genin had matching faces of glee.

"Hello, Naruto-kun." Shizune interrupted as she attempted to give Hinata a break. "Come on in, the Hokage's waiting."

"Hinata-sama, are you responsible for this?" Kuma asked innocently as he pointed at Mika's bleeding face. Naruto's genin team was ignoring the open invitation into the Hokage office. Shizune made the mistake of opening the door and alerting the Hokage to the commotion outside, for the Hokage got up from her seat.

Hinata was blushing a fierce red once Kuma accused her of her crime.

"Yes." Hinata could never lie. "It was...it was on instinct! I feel horrible." She went back to dabbing Mika's face.

Naruto snorted. "Probably deserved it if _Hinata_ smacked some sense into her."

"Did Mika try to do something perverted to you too, Hinata-san?" Taishi asked loudly. Naruto squawked before rushing up to silence the boy with a hand pressed against the loud-mouth's mouth.

Hinata shook her head. "Unfortunately I was in the wrong no matter how you look at it, kids. You should never hit a civilian, no matter how offensive they get."

"But Mika _isn't_ a civilian," Naruto's female genin, Akari, piped up. "She's Chuunin, isn't she?"

Hinata gave the girl a kind look. "I'm a Jounin, it was still unfair of me."

"Hinata is a great ninja kids, see how darn truthful she is?" Naruto ruffled his kids hair. "Not everyone can stay this honest once they become Jounin." Naruto winked over at Hinata. Hinata stiffened. And she hoped to god she wasn't still blushing.

"Are you an honest Jounin, sensei?" Akari asked as she blinked up at Naruto.

"Nope. Changing subject! Let's go into the Hokage office. Come on." Naruto waved them into the office, but the Hokage was blocking their path as she stood in her office doorway, looking at the scene of Hinata dabbing Mika's nose with a handerchief with disbelieving eyes.

"_You_ did this, Hinata?" the Hokage gaped.

"I'm very, very sorry, Hokage-sama." Hinata immediately got up from her seat and bowed. "It won't happen again."

"Geez!" the Hokage shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe it." She pulled out her wallet and silently counted out a small fortune or ryo before throwing it dramatically down on Shizune's desk. "You win." She muttered under her breath darkly as she stomped back into her office, the genin team closely following behind the angry Godaime.

"Lost a bet again, Hokage-sama?" Akari innocently chirps. Naruto snickered the entire time as he led his kids inside and closed the door behind him.

Hinata blinked at Shizune who giggled in glee as she counted her rewards money.

"You were betting I would hit her?"

"We bet who'd snap first, me or you. Yeah." Shizune smiled calmly. "I'm so lucky too, I was worried about this one." She waved the ryo in front of her face. "I'll buy you lunch, Hyuuga."

Hinata beamed, "Really? Can we stop by the bakery, too?"

"I'm feeling rich today, sure, why not? Oh, by the way-positive six points. You did good just now."

"Po-positive..." Hinata gasped at her new high score. She had never gotten a grade higher than positive one point. She jumped up from her seat with an excited smile plastered on her face and her hands clapping. "I got a positive number! I'm doing ok?"

"You did blush when Naruto winked at you...but that was a pretty normal reaction for anyone...but other than that...you kept calm and patient. You even spoke pretty maturely back there when Mika was talking."

"Before I hit her."

"Yeah, before you knocked her out." Shizune smiled. "Lunch?"

"_Please_." Hinata, switching back to her old, happy self, and grabbed her coat.

* * *

((Rokudaime Era))

The Fire Lord rubbed his head and owlishly blinked, jerking back for a split second when he saw two blazing blue eyes boring into him from across the table.

"How long was I out?" his broken voice asked aloud. A soft, gentle female voice that stood next to him answered.

"Only a few minutes. Fire Lord, what do you remember?"

The Fire Lord barely had enough energy to turn his head over toward the Hokage's assistant, but as he gathered the broken pieces of his memory and groped around for words he finally made out a distinguishable sentence. "I don't...know? I was...we had a meeting today?" he asked squinting toward the young male ninja sitting across from his large round desk. The young man, barely older than his own son, huffed and dramatically rolled his eyes before leaning back on his chair. The man looked strangely relieved about something, and the Fire Lord guessed that it meant he was 'out of it' for more than just a couple of minutes.

"I'm sorry." The Fire Lord uttered, "I...I was drinking again. I must have...missed the memo."

"Yeah, well we gave you a fair warning―a week's worth, in fact." The young Hokage threw his hands up in the air and glowered back at him, intending to let the guilt really sink in, but then the boy―with his strange up and down moods himself quickly smiled at him. "But whatever―as long as you're talking straight now. You feeling a little sober?"

The Fire Lord coughed loudly, clearing his throat and shook his head. "I feel dizzy...and my head..._really_ hurts." The man gingerly touched a side of his face that seemed to prickle uncomfortably-as if he had slept in a bed of nails.

"I think you drank more than your body weight, old man." The Hokage said with a chuckle.

"Hokage-sama." The voice of the soft and gentle assistant silenced the boy's chuckle from escalating into a full-blown taunting laugh. "We have matters to discuss." She reminded.

"Yeah, yeah." The boy stroked a hand through his golden locks and sighed. "Can you ask for some rice? The guy needs to put some solids in his stomach." He asked toward his assistant. In just a tug of a breeze and without any audible sound, the Fire Lord realized that the assistant vanished to fulfill her duties, leaving the Hokage and the Fire Lord all to themselves. The Fire Lord sometimes forgot that the well dressed assistant was also a ninja-and always felt a weak and defenseless around the young and powerful duo of Konohagakure. He suddenly started to realize why his own father hated dealing with ninjas so much.

"You didn't _slap_ me again, did you?" The Fire Lord asked dryly once he realized they were alone.

"_No._" Naruto glared back at him, his face changed from relaxed to offended in an instant and the Fire Lord immediately backed down.

"Ok, fine." The Fire Lord mumbled. "Lie to me then, I don't care-you and the rest of the council just do whatever you want."

Naruto's eyebrows quirked for a second before he thinned his mouth in a tight line.

"I'm actually here to talk about that."

"What?" the Fire Lord scoffed. "My council?"

"Yeah. _Your_ council. What the hell? Did you hire a bunch of ding-bats? Why in the world-"

"They were _elected_, Naruto." The Fire Lord grumbled, really wishing for a drink right about now. He's had this conversation with his wives already several times. "You and I both know that. The elites of the city has pooled their votes together-"

"That's because you only let the rich vote for a spot-and you get your rich-ass friends to elect other rich-ass friends into positions of power." Naruto spat angrily, "There's no voice from the citizens that are barely scrapping by-what the hell, Junichirou?" Naruto raised his voice angrily―even having the audacity to address the Fire Lord by his name, "I just had to walk my assistant through a neighborhood and was asked for change by a couple of _four year olds_ dressed in rags-and I have to call this city my _capital_?"

The Fire Lord grit his teeth but couldn't say anything in return, the young man that sat across him only voiced the same concerns that he had been discussing with his own council for the past couple of _months_. Their interests were strung in the wrong places, avoiding the true problems of his city and his _country_ and aiming toward arguing and bickering over small issues that shouldn't even be in their list of priority.

"Do you think I'm _happy_ about that?" Fire Lord finally ground out, his commanding, powerful voice finally hitched into play and Naruto leaned back and wove his fingers together in response to his thunderous vibrato. Despite his receptive demeanor the young boy―who took charge of the strongest warriors in his country―didn't stop giving him a look of utter disgust. The boy looked like he was sniffing dog turd from his shoe, and was casting Fire Lord with a glare with his piercing blue eyes. A young boy like Naruto shouldn't _dare_ look at the Fire Lord of all people in such a way, but the Fire Lord knew that the boy was of a different _breed_. He wasn't a noble or raised in a proper ninja family like the rest of the late Hokages that had usually took rule. Naruto was rude, brash, passionate-a complete opposite of the calm and composed Yondaime that was said to have fathered him. Once the Hokage's assistant wasn't around to guide Naruto through the traditional customs, Naruto spoke and acted like a common thug in front of the Fire Lord. It was frightening, and all at the same time more frustrating than dealing with his snotty council.

"Naruto." the Fire Lord said as calmly as he could muster, "You're not the only one who's loosing control over their council and their elders. I am very old." He said in a tired voice. "And I'm very tired of my sons fighting for my place-none of them, and I repeat-_none_ of my seven sons would like to rule with you in your idea of peace. I am doing my best keeping the council from denouncing me as Daimyo as we speak."

"You have got to be shitting me." Naruto threw his arms up in the air and shot up from his seat in fury. "You're the _Fire Lord_-you get to make the final say in things-what are the Council even thinking?"

"The council." The Fire Lord sighed, his eyes closing, "Want one of my sons to become a legend in history. And you know how politicians believe legends are made."

Naruto grumbled and leaned against the table, not wanting to answer the rhetorical question.

"Legends-or heroes in history are made by the act of _war_, Naruto. I've lived through one-and you _ended_ one. We both have a spotlight in history and we're supposedly well off...but the _next_ Fire Lord is threatened with you in office. You don't seem like a leader that would want to lead his warriors to _war_. The Council is weary of your so called 'nindo'."

Naruto hissed in distaste. "To go to war we need _money_. And last I've checked, the Fire Nation is as neck-deep in debt as the Wind-Nation is in sand."

Fire Lord sighed as well, very aware of the fact. In fact-the few villages in his country that were still financially well off was none other than the villages run by Naruto. The council wasn't stupid-they knew that their power source and their money rested heavily inside of the village of Konoha. All they needed was a way to either force Naruto into the idea of starting a war, or shove him out of office. And with Naruto refusing to raise taxes on said ninja clans he was not only increasing his support through the ninja clans and ultimately putting the Fire Lord and the Fire Council in a bad place.

"It wouldn't be neck deep...if you chipped in to help." Fire Lord accused.

"Hey." Naruto bit out, "Less than seven years ago-we ninjas were risking our lives for this country-the majority of ninjas that survived the war aren't doing too _hot_, ok? We're scraping by as well-we need to keep the money in our villages so we can support those ninjas who lost _limbs,_ get the picture? We shed _blood_ over this country, don't try to pick at our pockets too."

"You have a moral obligation to help those children in rags just as much as I do."

"YOU DON'T THINK I'M CONCERNED ABOUT THAT? ALL OF THE MONEY YOU TAKE FROM OUR VILLAGES GOES STRAIGHT TO MAKING YOUR LITTLE COUNCIL RICHER-IT AIN'T HELPING SHIT AROUND HERE-DON'T YOU DARE POINT THAT ACCUSING FINGER AT ME!" Naruto exploded.

"Hokage-sama, Fire Daimyo." Announced a soft voice, and the Fire Lord leaned back when he smelled a waft of fresh rice before a tray of breakfast food was placed delicately in front of him. He looked up to see the beautiful kunoichi Hinata Hyuuga, the Hokage's secretary as well as the infamous Hyuuga clan heiress, looking back down at him. She had her usual emotionless, cold face up. She glanced briefly at him, before she walked up to sit next to the right side of her Hokage on the other end of the table. The huffing and puffing Hokage that was ranting just a split second ago, was back in his seat, calmly collecting himself. The Fire Lord saw his assistant place a placid hand on his forearm that calmed him down.

"Let's be civil toward each other. We are on the same team, need I remind you." Hinata suggested, sweeping her eyes over the two powerful men in the room. "The Hokage is concerned about the new politicians in the Fire Council. We have gathered news from the Earth Nation that the Earth council recently replaced the position of Tsuchikage behind everyone's backs. For the first time in history...there is a non-ninja taking position as Tsuchikage."

The Fire Lord's back straightened and his eyes rounded. "How...is that _possible_?" even the Fire Lord knew it was a bad idea to mix up with Ninja politics-ninjas were dangerous men, the councils in Earth must have...lost their minds, or either that or reigned control of the ninja clans-and the latter seemed highly unlikely.

Naruto grumbled inaudibly, and Hinata took this as her cue to inform her Fire Lord.

"The Earth Council has been steadily rising in power in the Earth Nation much like our country. Ever since hearing word that Danzo would become Rokudaime, a number of politicans from around this continent decided to take a defensive stance. Danzo's rule was threatening a world of peace-you must know this..." Hinata's eyes darkened. "Fire Lord-you are the one who appointed him Hokage to begin with. It started a series of events that are still haunting the ninja world to this day. The Iwagakure ninjas are now desperate to try to move their clans into Fire Nation territory-they are committing treason at this very moment for even suggesting crossing borders."

The Fire Lord started to sweat bullets. The meal that was beckoning him a second before now smelled sour under his nose. He had to rise and started to frantically pace back and forth around his room.

"This can't be possible." He muttered.

"Got the Iwagakure's most political savy clan asking if they could live in the Northern gates of our city just last Tuesday." Naruto said in a drawled voice. "Believe it, buddy-shit's happening."

"But this could mean..._war_ again!"

"That's exactly why we're here." Hinata said softly.

"But...but we _can't_-this is war between the capitals. That stupid Rock Lord! What was he thinking?"

"Exactly the same things you were―ever since the war was over and you saw the debt only rising―you've been drinking your life away!" Naruto accused angrily, "Now it's biting everyone in the ass―while you blindly had your back turned, the Fire Council has been giving the ninjas in this country little to no respect! Next thing I know-one of your _sons_ will be taking the title of Hokage without _any basic ninja training_. Guess what that'll do to the allegiance of ninja clans in this country? Yeah-that's right, they'll outright _leave_." Naruto declared angrily, "I don't understand this political shit as well as I should, but I know a war when I see one. And the only way to stop this war is by stopping that council of yours-stop letting them get away with this shit-FIRE a few of their snotty asses, and tell them to fucking _respect_ the ninjas that are actually going to end up fighting their stupid war for them if they do end up getting their way."

"Hokage-sama is right." Hinata's voice hardened as well. Her tone surprised the Fire Lord and increasing the fear that was already doing a number to his heart rate. "The ninja clans of Konohagakure would rather...become an independent nation and denounce the Fire Council completely, but that would mean...another war. A civil war." She said knowing this very well. Afterall, Hinata had one foot in the inner workings of the clan politics in Konoha-she was a heiress of one of the most powerful clan after all.

"What can we _do_." The Fire Lord stressed, "As of right now? To stop the Iwagakure ninjas?

"Fortunately." Naruto spoke up, "We've got our best ninjas, and best negotiators interfering with Earth Nation politics _undercover_ right now. We've had a few spies, mainly dog-nins living in Iwagakure disguised as stray dogs and according to their information, the Iwagakure ninjas are trying to rope the Kazekage, the Mizukage, and the Raikage into their own civil war. They want the ninjas of their countries to help fight for their rights as ninjas."

"And what are your plans?" the Fire Lord asked, "What's _your_ tactics, Hokage-sama?" he asked going back to formally donning Naruto with his rightful title. It was an ultimate sign of respect-and fear. The Fire Lord was practically _quivering_. He didn't even look this bad when the epic ninja war was going on-he always had that drunken stupor ready to back up his nerves...but this time the Fire Lord knew especially well that this war would well cross the boundaries into his _palace_. It had suddenly stopped being the matter of ninja nations alone, this war was spreading like wild fire toward the capitals of the elemental nations.

"I'm siding with the Iwagakure ninjas on this one, of course." Naruto said.

"But...what about your _country_? This could start a war between the Fire Capital and the Earth Capital!" the Fire Lord panicked.

"I said _I'm_ siding with them. The Konoha Elders disagree though-and I can't blame them, in fact I even partially agree...it's complicated business." Naruto frowned. "The Elders of Konoha don't want to make hasty moves of rushing to the Iwagakure ninja's aid. So far the new Tsuchikage-although offending the traditions of the ninja-hasn't made drastic plans of war _yet_. Once he sets his eyes on Konoha though, we've got a few tricks up our sleeve to keep them away from our borders."

"So you're waiting for _them_ to attack?" the Fire Lord roared, furious. "But what does that mean? Wouldn't that mean they'll also attack my palace? Shouldn't you...like...threaten them to keep away? Use your huge master-toads fight off the Iwagakure ninjas?"

"No." Naruto shook his head. "If I was a few years younger, I'd definitely pounce on that idea and run with it, but this is actually where we stop and _think_. Fighting them will bring war into Konoha at a faster rate. Instead, we have the advantage of a non-ninja is running Iwagakure-we're going to fight and end this war swiftly the _ninja way_." Naruto said talking like a true leader of ninjas. If there was one thing Naruto was smart about, it was fighting, and he didn't let anyone forget it.

"What are you talking about?" the Fire Lord hissed. "I don't understand, speak in clear Japanese when you talk to me-for heaven's sake I'm sweating bullets here!"

Hinata grimaced. "Secretively. This war will be in total secret. Only our top Jounins and our ANBU officers have been informed of the impending war, and only four or five ninjas will be distributed to aid Iwagakure at a time-the rest of the country must not know about this. Though this may seem like matters of national security-we beg of you not to inform the Fire Council. They will only complicate things further. Let Naruto-sama take care of this in the best of his knowledge."

The Fire Lord relaxed considerably. "In secret? Well...but...we'll still be in a war?"

"The Ninjas in our country want _peace_, as do most other ninjas after that long-ass war with the Akatsuki. Ninja's throughout the continent adopted my ninja way." Naruto said in a much kinder voice, noticing that the Fire Lord's shoulders had bunched up around his ears and he had turned ghostly white. "The only people still hungry for _power_, for _respect_, for...for _war_...are the people in government who doesn't know a single thing about the way ninja politics work." Naruto snapped, glaring at the Fire Lord especially on this. "The Tsuchikage must resign peacefully-or else the ninja clans from all the major ninja villages will pool together in their fight for ninja rights. Despite our differences, to mock our name by announcing a non-ninja to grace the title of a kage...is just..." Naruto bunched his chin and look like he wanted to spat at something. "It's really a slap in the face is what it is. Those council members don't know what's coming to them-they've really screwed things up for themselves."

"How come we didn't see this coming? Why weren't you more informed about your neighboring countries?" the Fire Lord accused angrily.

"Hey!" Naruto stood up, offended. "Dude!" he threw his hands up in defense. "I _am_ informed! We _lost contact_ with them, and when we snooped and found out why we weren't getting updates from Iwagakure-this shit was _already happening_. I think you of all people know the ninjas keep out of other country's political affairs. It was YOUR fucking job to keep an eye on the Rock Lord, not _us_. Like you people are so keen on reminding us-whenever you get into nasty shit with the governments from other countries-that's when _we_ ninjas have to suddenly bow to your will, remember? We know _nothing_ of the real shit that goes on in those other castles! We're―we're in the dark just as much as you are. The Fire Council's job is to inform us-but lately...they've been more interested in getting their hands into our newspaper, or electricity bills, our taxes-nothing I mean _nothing_ about the trouble of power between other countries has ever been addressed with me. This war is not us ninja's faults-it's YOUR fault."

"HOW―_DARE_ YOU-"

"The Hokage-sama is correct." The usually calm assistant said as well, standing at full attention next to her Hokage. "We mean no disrespect, Fire Lord, but you have pushed blame on Naruto-sama far too long-and you have been blind to the workings of your cabinet and your council. The very way our Fire Council address their Hokage-sama has made us realize that the Fire Nation is not far off from undergoing the same strains as the Earth Nation." She glanced at her Hokage wearily. Naruto was breathing rapidly through his nose.

Naruto suddenly threw a finger out at the Fire Lord. "When the Fire Council comes back to Konoha for the next monthly meeting-I want to see at least _five_ new council members that aren't from your noble clans. Or they ain't stepping _foot_ into Konoha, _got it_?"

The Fire Lord gulped. "T-that's _impossible_. Five new members-that's outrageous! You're asking too much!"

"You don't do that-or they're not allowed to cross into my village." Naruto threatened. "That's my proposition. If you want protection for this war, Fire Lord-you _will_ regain control of your council, because if you don't...we'll be in a civil war. And you wouldn't want to be fighting in a war with me." Naruto's eyes darkened. "I believe in peace-but you and your precious council are pushing me out of my comfort zone...don't make me whoop your sorry asses." Naruto had the audacity to shoot him a very threatening grin. His smile vanished when he caught sight of his assistant shooting him a look that told him to knock it off. Before Naruto could act all innocent-she signaled for him to bow and they both made a silent greeting of showing their utmost respect by showing the tops of their heads, before a poof of smoke signaled their leave.

The Fire Lord collapsed back into his chair and looked at the glass of water offered on his tray and wished it was a strong liquor before knocking it loudly back.

* * *

((Godaime Era))

The Hokage had invited Hinata to the Hokage meeting room at two o' clock in the morning out of the blue. She was ordered to dress to impress, so she actually wore one of her own kimonos that day instead of her usual black or grey kimono she had been borrowing from her late mother's collection. She realized that this must have been very delicate business, either a meet up with one of the other Kage or a discussion on tactics to win a war with ANBU captains.

She even went out of her way earlier that evening to go to a traditional kimono shop to get her hair woven into a simple but slightly more impressive hair piece. She sometimes worried that her simple ponytail looked too simple in front of visiting guests from across the borders of the fire nation. Hinata had gotten more and more detailed in the way she dressed and was had even out-dressed the Hokage several times already. She patted her hair awkwardly before knocking on the Hokage door half an hour till two. She as supposed to meet up with the Hokage to discuss tactics. Of what, she didn't know yet, but she had a feeling that she wasn't going ot be sleeping tonight.

The Hokage had her Hokage hat tucked under her arm, already this alerted Hinata that this was serious business.

"Hokage-sama?" Hinata blinked.

Hinata also noticed Shizune wasn't present.

"Where is Shizune-san?"

"Follow me, Hinata." The Hokage didn't answer her as she briskly slipped past Hinata and toward the meeting rooms. Hinata closed the office, locked it up with the proper lock and seal, and hurried after her Hokage.

She glanced around and wondered where the rest of the strategists were. The normal flock of Shikamaru, Shikaku, some elder Sarutobi men, and Shino's uncle Shiitake san should have been here with her.

She couldn't think of any scenario in which she was the only one to attend a very important meeting.

_Unless it's a match-making gig_.

Hinata balked and shook her mind of such thoughts. How silly of her-besides, Tsunade-sama wasn't her _father_ she didn't have such powers...right?

_Then why did she ask you to dress up_?

Oh no. Hinata suddenly started to think this might actually be a match making gig.

Tsunade stood in front of Meeting room one-the rooms purpose was to hold some of the most important meetings in the fire nation. Thus it was the most impressive looking room in the whole building. Large mahogany beams decorated and supported the structure of the room. Delicately carved engravings filled every nook and cranny. Large fire nation emblems hung handsomely across the walls and spilled onto the constantly cleaned and polished bamboo tatami floors. Hinata realized she was rambling in her head from nervousness.

Tsunade stopped, and took a shaky breath, alerting Hinata that the Hokage looked nervous about something.

"Hinata?" Tsunade asked. "Do you know why we're here?"

Hinata looked pale and miserable as she wracked her mind and came up with nothing.

"N-no, Hokage-sama." Hinata bit her lip when she let a stutter slip out. "May I?" she gestured toward opening the door for her Hokage.

Hinata watched as Tsunade took a deep and steady breath that rattled Hinata's nerves more than anything she's ever seen.

"I'm ready." Tsunade smiled brightly. "Open the door."

Hinata gulped and nodded, pulling the large sliding door aside and kneeling for her mastering to pass through. She only got up after her name was called.

When Hinata entered the room, she was surprised to find it empty. One long, oblong-shaped table sat in the middle of the room. It was actually a slice of a real red oak tree shaved and polished into a beautiful meeting room kneeling table. The Hokage was already taking a seat at the far end of the table-seating in the most important position, the head. Someone had already previously entered the room and lit the lanterns behind the large painted fire nation emblem made it look like the fire nation symble was actually crackling and burning itself. The largest fire pit was exposed right behind Tsunade.

"Hokage-sama?" Hinata was extremely lost.

"Take a seat right here, Hinata. Next to me." The Hokage instructed as she gestured the seat where Shizune would normally join her. The seat of the right-hand man. The assistant.

Hinata felt awkward at once.

"Does Shizune-san―"

"Shizune was already informed of this meeting. She doesn't need to be present." The Hokage said without much emotion on her face. "She even told me she would rather have you there. She was afraid she'd get...emotional."

Hinata's eyes widened. If Shizune was going to get emotional, it was a bigger possibility that Hinata would lose it. Hinata wasn't exactly known to be conservative when it came to shedding tears like most kunoichi.

The Hokage rapped her knuckles quickly on the table to get Hinata to hurry up. Hinata took off her sandals by the door and tucked it into the shoe cubby and shutting the large doors behind her. She scurried toward her destined seat, and sat town, just as she heard a scuffle outside of the door.

When she finally took her seat and straightened her back, she stole a glance toward her Hokage.

The Hokage seemed to be shaking.

Hinata reached up and grabbed the woman's hand. Tsunade jumped, looking surprised before she smiled appreciatively toward Hinata.

"Baa-chan! Why the _heck_ was I called here in the middle of the _night_?" the loud, distinctive voice shouted before the door was kicked open by a rather cranky force.

Uzumaki Naruto's loud entry was stopped short when he stupidly stared at the scene in front of him. Unsure of what it was, and his face showed it.

"Eh?" he even made a stupid face resembling a confused and lost chimp.

"Get _in_." Hokage said impatiently. "What are you gaping around like a fool for. You're considered five minutes _late_."

"Blah, blah, blah." Naruto closed the door behind him and kicked off his shoes, and jumped into the meeting room. His hands tucked in his pocket as he looked around. He already knew the ninja customs, and didn't need to be told where to sit. He sat at the opposite end of the Hokage, looking directly at her.

He stole a glance at Hinata, and she felt her heart race but that usual blush on her face had been drilled and fought away through months of practice. She did offer a soft smile to calm what looked like worry in his eyes.

Hinata suddenly knew what this meeting was for, and instantly felt her hands get clammy. She wanted to apologize to her Hokage whos' hand she was tightly gripping. She must have only added to the discomfort of the whole excruciatingly important meeting.

"So..." Naruto started.

"Sit up straight, Naruto." Hokage snapped.

Naruto gave a look of annoyance before he straightened his back.

"Are we waiting for anyone else?" Naruto asked looking around the room.

"No." the Hokage answered.

"Well out with it then." Naruto sighed, rounding his back again and leaning onto the table with his elbows. "I'd really like to go to bed."

"This is an important meeting for me, Naruto. _Don't ruin this moment._" Hokage hissed threateningly.

"Sit up straight, Naruto-kun." Hinata reminded, glancing nervously at her Hokage.

Naruto listened for once, and sat up straight again, but this time looking honestly worried. "Uh...you guys are kinda freaking me out."

"Naruto, you're my successor." The Hokage said in one breath. She then sighed and relaxed instantly. "Wow, I'm glad I got _that_ off my chest. FINALLY."

Hinata beamed, and squeezed Tsunade's hands encouragingly before turning toward Naruto, eagerly waiting to see his response.

Naruto blinked slowly.

"What?"

That wasn't exactly the response that Hinata was expecting.

"You're going to be Hokage." Tsunade had to spell out. "When I step down, you're going to be Hokage."

There was a silence again, and Tsunade and Hinata watched as large tears spilled out of Naruto's eyes and dripped off his chin. It didn't end there, his nose started to run and he started to cry. He hid his face with his arm and bent over as he sobbed.

Suddenly a thunderous roar exploded from the youth at the other end of the table. Hinata thought she had jumped out of her skin, she was so shocked at the response. Large amount of chakra poured off the boy like a heat wave. He was pumping his fist in the air and waving his hips side to side in a sexy victory dance.

"I did it! I did it! I'm Hokage. I'm Hokage. I'M AWESOME! I'M AWESOME!" Naruto started to create some strong wind gusts with his hyper dance, and Hinata winced when a few lamps were blown. Tsunade laughed the entire time, and she too felt herself get teary as she realized this was a moment she had dreamed about herself.

"Now sit down. We have matters to discuss." Tsunade shouted over Naruto's rambunctious outburst. "We'll be officially announcing your succession tomorrow night at the meeting of the summit. All of Konoha's important clan leaders will be there, among all of your future advisors."

Naruto was literally jumping in his seat like an excited kid. It was hard to tell that the man before the Hokage was already twenty. But for a twenty year old to already be told that his lifelong dream was coming true, it was quite an expected reaction.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you." He was saying, and half singing.

"If you want to really thank someone, you should thank Hinata." The Hokage said, surprising the other two in the room.

Naruto's eyes sparkled and zeroed in on her. "Hinata?"

Hinata blinked at Tsunade-sama as well.

"If she hadn't taken to the Hokage assistant duties so impeccably and convince Shizune that she could run this building without anyone's help...I wouldn't feel so comfortable handing this position to you this early. I was planning on being stuck here for another two years at the very least...but Hinata was ready. Hinata will handle everything from now on. You are now the official Hokage's assistant from now on. Shizune is retired from this moment onward."

Hinata bowed in compliance.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. I'm honored."

"Naruto." the Hokage gestured toward Hinata. "Your new assistant."

Hinata's eyes twinkled as she beamed over at Naruto, and bowed toward him as well.

"Hokage-sama." She uttered. Naruto's heart soared high up above, and it left his feet feeling tingly.

"You don't have to call him that yet." Tsunade scolded.

"It's best to get into the habit early." Hinata smiled back at her. Naruto was practically glowing with pride.

"I'm sorry you didn't get to pick out your own assistant, Naruto. But this is for your own good." Hokage explained. "Since you're such a young Hokage, it would be unwise of me to let you pick whoever you wanted to boss around. Thankfully Hinata is the finest assistant I've ever seen. She is sure to make your transition into your new position an easy one."

Hinata bowed her head graciously at the generous compliment.

"So Hinata's my assistant now?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. Ah, Hinata-let's pour the customary sake to make this official. It's behind you." Instructed the Hokage. "Serve the lad first."

Hinata picked up the tray with the rice wine and carried it over to the hyperactive boy. She slipped him a proud smile as she handed him the tiny sake cup in two polite, outstretched hands. She positioned it softly in front of him before she made the slow movements of pouring him his first cup of sake as the successor of the Hokage.

"Thanks." Naruto whispered, eyes sparkling with tears and happiness and pride and victory. "Thanks Hinata."

"You're welcome." Hinata glanced over her shoulder to see that the current Hokage wasn't listening. "Hokage-sama." She whispered.

"I heard that." growled the current Hokage. "Hinata, serve me too. Let's start drinking." Hinata quickly served her Hokage a cup, and the Hokage graciously swooped in to offer Hinata a cup of sake too. Soon all three of them took a sip of the same sake.

"This is a defining moment in history." Hinata said in awe. "Naruto-kun will be the youngest kage Konoha has ever had-younger than his father, Yondaime."

Naruto beamed and puffed out his chest.

"Yes it is." The Hokage said calmly. "I get to go back to gambling and sleeping as long as I want."

"Quick question," Naruto said. "What will happen to my kids."

The Hokage was about to answer, but Hinata quickly cut in.

"You'll have time to still train them, but they will be given a substitute Jounin to simply accompany them on low-ranking missions. You are still allowed to go with them on missions once they are skilled enough for B, A, and S rank." Hinata explained. "Yondaime himself still trained Kakashi-sensei, Rin-san, and Obito-san when he was training to become Hokage. I'm sure you can do it successfully as well."

Naruto nodded, and drew a big sigh of relief. "I do still feel kinda bad for them...I'm not gonna be able to spend that much time with them anymore."

"If you want, we can withhold your promotion until next year." The Hokage said, pouring her second cup of sake.

Naruto smirked, "Don't even _joke_ like that."

Hinata sat down at the _official_ Hokage assistant desk with a sense of wonder.

Here it was.

All in front of her. The responsibility of the whole city was up to _her_ and the current Hokage now, and sure enough while the next three months are going to be rather hectic preparing for a new leader, Hinata was well aware of the stream of sleepless days sure to come. She already felt the need to organize.

She needed to keep the Jounin, Chuunin, and Genin busy on missions and assign it to them all on her own. The Hokage would still have to do the daily meetings for mission reports, but other than that, Hinata doubted that the Hokage would have time for all the non-ninja issues and had to make a list of the large stack of municipal affairs of the village into a stockpile, and send letters out to those with deadlines and request it to be pushed back. She also had to send the invitations for the Kage summit and inform them of Konoha's new Rokudaime Hokage.

She was still counting off her mental check list as she walked back to her old desk and rummaged for a pen and paper to start organizing in order of importance what she should do first thing in the morning. She paused as she dimly remembered she had agreed to go on a date with Keisuke that very evening and realized she also needed to make him an apologetic 'raincheck' letter. She quickly brushed that thought aside though, as she realized being the new secretary of Konoha was much more important than _boys_. How silly of her to ever get distracted by-

"Already working?"

Hinata looked up at Naruto as he sauntered in, slightly tipsy from all the sake he recently shared with the other Hokage-that had fallen fast asleep after her twentieth cup.

"I had a feeling I wouldn't be sleeping tonight. Might as well make the most of it." Hinata smiled. "Would you like some tea?" she asked as she saw Naruto rub his eyes furiously with his fists.

"That would...be great, yeah." he yawned loudly. Hinata got up and carefully got to the hot water station that she had installed next to her desk. She came back to put a steaming cup of tea in front of Naruto.

"Be careful, it's hot." Hinata warned.

"Thanks..._Ouch-hot!"_

Hinata gave him a 'I told you so' look before sitting back on her desk and filling the rest of her list out.

"Hey Hinata?"

Hinata looked up and saw Naruto staring at her.

"Are you going to be my assistant forever?"

Hinata nervously looked down at her list and tapped it with her pencil. "If...you'll have me."

"Yeah." Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I'd like to have you around. You're cool." He took a sip of his tea.

Hinata put her pencil down. "Naruto-kun?"

Naruto glanced at her from over his cup of tea.

"Are you scared? Being Hokage, I mean?"

Naruto slurped the last bit of his tea before slamming the cup on Hinata's desk. He leaned on the chair he was sitting in and scoffed.

"No way. Well, maybe a little, but you're here right? What would I have to worry about?" he asked, his words slightly slurred.

Hinata looked down at her rather long list of things to do before Naruto started his term as Hokage.

"Yeah, I've got this covered." Hinata said in a determined fashion.

"When...did you get so..._pretty_?"

He leaned forward and asked.

Hinata's heart raced, but her face was now a blank slate. She was even able to stop her face from flushing a deep red, but if anyone reached up and touched her wrist, they would have been able to feel her heart pulsating at a dangerous speed.

Maybe working for Naruto would be a health risk, maybe working for Naruto would mean her heart would be constantly in a troubled limbo, but maybe working for Naruto will finally make her visible.

She stared at his drunken face and sighed.

She needed to stop getting..._distracted_ by her past. She had to remind herself that she didn't _have_ those silly feelings for the man in front of her anymore. She tried to think of Keisuke's face, but as she continued to stare at Naruto's goofy, drunken grin, she couldn't even make out what color eyes her boyfriend had. Naruto's azure eyes, his cheeky grin with his cheeky markings flashing back at her-only _inches_ away from her face now.

Her heart raced like you wouldn't believe, but her face was a porcelain mask.

"You're drunk." She shook her head. "Let's take you home."

* * *

((Rokudaime Era))

"Sooo..." Naruto went on. "That went well, right?" he held up a thumbs up toward Hinata, who was jumping through the trees alongside of him as they ran back toward Konoha. Even in her restraining Kimono, she was keeping pretty good pace with him. At the rate they were jumping through the forest of the Fire Nation, they would definitely end up in Konoha by day break.

Hinata stared at him in shock for a second, "Please tell me you're just trying to be cute." She ducked to avoid a branch.

"Oh, so I'm cute now?" Naruto grinned cheekily, but when Hinata only pulled her lips into a steadfast pout, Naruto finally donned the same look and pointed his nose toward the heavens. "Oh fine! Be that way! Be mean to me!"

"I'm not being mean!"

"Yeah, you are."

"You _slapped_ the Fire Lord."

"Oh please, he was so drunk there's no way he would've remembered that."

"You need to control your temper!"

"You need to calm _down_. Nothing happened! What's done is done! Stop being mad at me!"

"Well-" Hinata was at a loss of words. "You're Hokage! You should know better than to raise a hand toward the Fire Lord of all people! If you weren't Uzumaki Naruto-I don't know what he would have done!"

"Haha, are you saying if it was any other Hokage-they'd be toast?"

"Essentially." Hinata glanced back at him. "You are still the hero of this entire nation, Naruto-sama. Your role as Hokage is strong and steadfast-more than the Fire Lord. The Fire Lord must know that there's more people who put faith in you than himself. He was born into his privileged title, you _earned_ yours."

"So then _why_ can't I do whatever I want and just-flip my shit at the council?"

"Please, Hokage-sama, you know the reason why. There's still customs to consider."

"Yeah, customs that _they're_ breaking for their own benefits! Why can't I break some customs too?"

"You already have done a _wonderful_ job breaking customs in the Elders of Konoha." Hinata promised, "But these types of changes takes time, and force isn't always the best way to speed up progress."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Naruto-kun."

Naruto's heart sped up and his eyes widened into dinner plates before his neck snapped toward Hinata. She kept her profile toward him as she stared straight ahead-a frown still on her delicate features. She glanced back at him, realizing she had called him with his old honorific.

"I always knew you would become Hokage." Hinata said, their eyes met, and they both started to slow in their pace. "Don't let the Fire Council win...they're a stupid reason for you to lose your rightful title."

"Hey." Naruto said softly a corner of his lips quirking into a awkward grin. "You know me. I don't lose to a couple of whiners."

Hinata flashed him a small smile of her own. A smile that clenched onto Naruto's heart. He suddenly realized in that moment that he would just _love_ to crush one custom in particular. What was so wrong with loving your secretary? He couldn't wrap his head around it. All of those threats of loosing his position as Hokage almost seemed silly and too...contrived. Naruto wasn't stupid, he's worked with politicians for two years, and they were natural liars. He himself was becoming good at lying through his teeth to ease situations, and to fix a rather dastardly conversation. He hopefully wondered if Tsunade did the same thing to him-misinform him on what an affair would do to his title...

That is, if Hinata...still felt the same way.

Naruto suddenly felt that strange numbing feeling when he thought about the last time he openly showed his feelings he was starting to develop toward Hinata. That simple touch to her face had been a loud and scary wake up call that reminded him that Hinata was _different_ from the other girls he's ever tried to pursue. Loudly and persistantly asking a girl out, or bragging about himself and haughtily going about his usual routine didn't seem to impress Hinata-at least not anymore, which was totally understandable considering _she was his secretary_. That moment he touched Hinata's lips and had to watch her brush him away like some sort of...poison...he'd never get rid of that image of her staring back at him in shock.

"So...how was your date with Sai?" Naruto asked out of the blue.

Hinata noticed the sudden change in conversation as weird as well, for she glanced cautiously at her Hokage before slowing her pace that much more so that they could practically _stroll_ through the woods now. Slowing down to talk and discuss their mysterious romantic lives.

"It was nice." Hinata said, emotionless as ever once it came to her personal life.

"Bull _shit_."

"Naruto-sama!" Hinata gasped.

"I heard from Sakura that it was the most boring date _ever_."

"You had her spy on me?" Hinata glared at her Hokage.

"N-NO! No! She did it on her own accord-get angry at Sakura! Not _me_. I'm _innocent_."

Hinata only had to give him _one _look, and his poker face scattered to pieces.

"Ok, and I knew she was spying, and asked what happened! But that's gossip-you can't get angry at me for a simple, innocent little gossip-"

Hinata looked like she was already contemplating giving him another round of her infamous cold shoulder. Naruto saw the way her lips twitched into a permanent frown and her eyes were making an effort not to even have him in her peripheral vision. The girl was radiating irritation.

"I order you not to get angry at me." Naruto said in a fake authoritative voice, in an attempt to sound funny. When he didn't see Hinata crack into a small smile like she usually did, he frowned and slumped his shoulders. "Aw, come on, Hinata...these are the jokes."

"Does it look like I want to hear _jokes_ right now? After finding out my boss won't even let me have the privacy to go out on a simple _date_?"

"Ehhhh." Naruto knew he screwed up bad, but honestly didn't know where all of the sudden emotion came from. In a much softer voice he finally said, "Hinata, I'm _sorry_. There, see? You've got me to say it. Can you talk to me now?"

Hinata finally turned to face him-her eyes unafraid to stare back at his own.

Her beautiful, beautiful eyes.

Naruto didn't know his pace instantly slowed, his knees were wobbling and he almost lost sight of the next branch he was supposed to land on. Hinata followed his pace on instinct, and before long, they were standing on their own individual branch. The forest of the Fire Capital was thick and luscious, meaning the branches above them barely let the looming moonlight filter through the trees on normal nights. However, tonight was the full moon and the peaks of light that shot down through the cracks of the ancient trees cast rays of light that looked hypnotizing and almost haunting. The minute he stopped his mad dash toward Konoha, the sounds of the forest rose out from the earth, crickets, owls, scattering, and the sound of wind softly brushing the leaves.

And yet, his mind was all Hinata. Standing on a branch just a few feet away, staring intently back at him, was the woman that had suddenly become a huge part of his world. She had always been a huge part of his world, and yet...it took him _years_ to finally notice her. And now that he had...he gulped, he didn't know if she wanted him back.

That fear...of not being able to have someone that you really loved. It was something he hadn't even felt when he was longing for Sakura's affections. He always thought love was...a _game_.

But now, love was just as constant as time. Hinata booked him in.

For..._months_ now. His mind revolved around Hinata. How to get Hinata to laugh with him, to talk to him, to do things other than just..._work_.

He opened his mouth to finally let his heart out. It was the perfect moment-they were far from Konoha, far from spying ears or eyes, and war was threatening them. People would be distracted-Hinata would be distracted. It was the best time to suddenly tell Hinata what he was feeling.

"I'm sorry too." Hinata suddenly interrupted him just as he had started to form her name in his mouth. He swallowed. "I didn't like Sai. It was...wrong of me to agree to go on a date with someone close to you...that I didn't have feelings for."

Naruto nodded and cast his eyes down.

"I'm sorry I hurt your friend's feelings. I truly am. It was...irresponsible and reckless." Hinata said, her voice sounded so _hollow_, as if she's repeated this same sort of apology to people in the past.

"Hinata." Naruto closed his eyes. "Come here."

She obeyed. She took one leap and closed the gap between them by landing delicately just a few feet from him. The branch wasn't thick, yet the leaves it held barely rustled once Hinata found her footing. A sign of a deadly shinobi of the leaf was how well they could brush through the trees without letting the 'leaves hear them'. He wondered when she became skilled enough to earn that title-it was a feat that only ANBU warriors were allowed to carry proudly through their masks.

"We..." Naruto started. "You like me, right?" he stupidly blurted.

Hinata's responded almost instantly. "Of course I do." She said without blinking.

"I mean." Naruto felt flustered. "Do...you like me as a boss...or a friend...or..."

"I respect you with all my heart. As a boss, _and_ a friend." Hinata said softly.

"Can you speak to me as a friend right now?" Naruto asked, and bowed his head so that he could look at his shoes-he rubbed the back of his head and tried to losen the nerves that seemed to be causing a mess of thoughts bounce around in his head. No matter how harshly he scratched at the back of his skull though, nothing seemed to clear. When he looked back up, Hinata now looked concerned.

"Tsunade told me that if I...ever looked at you the wrong way, you'd quit. Or...I'd lose my job as Hokage."

Hinata frowned.

"But...I think she's bullshitting me."

Hinata looked away and sighed loudly-to emphasize her distaste in the subject.

"I do." Naruto's voice rose. "I won't lose my job if...if we end up together. And...being with the Hokage-hey, it's...not so bad, right?"

"You asked me if I like you." Hinata said quietly. "How did you jump to that meaning I'll _be_ with you?" she said, clearly irritated.

"Hinata...I...I know you've had feelings for me in the past. I mean, they're not...gone, are they?"

Hinata's eyes never looked so furious. She did a double take as she processed the words he just said, and soon Naruto was finding his back pressed against the tree and his eyes wildly searching the face of his usually calm, and beautifully graceful assistant who was staring at him as if he just _stabbed_ her or something. A look of utter _betrayal_...and she was also instinctively activating her byakugan, making her look more wild and alert.

"_You_ drowned out those feelings from me a _long_ time ago, Hokage-sama." Hinata's voice didn't reflect her wild demeanor. It remained calm and almost soothing, as if these words weren't supposed to crush Naruto's heart.

Naruto gulped. "I did, didn't I?" he said softly back. "So...you don't...You've never...wanted to be with me."

"No." Hinata said firmly, but her face was still that hard, angry glare. Her byakugan still activated, her pulse was still escalating. "Why, did you think I became your secretary so I could pine after you for the rest of eternity?" she asked, she'd never sounded so _bitter_. Hinata sounded...like a completely different person. Naruto had never seen this part of Hinata before, and was scared and yet, he was also strangely fascinated. Where did all this passion come from? The polite and clipped secretary had vanished before him, and there glaring at him was this...woman he had clearly pissed off _years_ ago.

The Hinata Hyuuga he blew off and didn't respond to after the confession. The Hinata Hyuuga that had crushed on him was now standing in front of him. Not his secretary, not his assistant, not his personal-guide or advisor.

But his friend.

They were talking as friends now...and Naruto had realized he'd never actually...been a good friend to her.

"No." Naruto coughed into his hand and glared back at Hinata. "No, of course I didn't think you took the job as my secretary to―pfft! NO! I know you were chosen because you were the best candidate―and, hey, being a Hyuuga helped my position to becoming Hokage way before I was ready!" Naruto shrugged. "I get it. This whole thing..." he gestured between the both of them. "This was a way of Tsunade rushing us into office because she was afraid the thing with the Fire Council would cause a civil war and she wasn't fit enough to fight another war so-"

"Naruto-sama." Hinata sighed and closed her eyes, tired of hearing Naruto's conspiracy theories.

"_Why else_ would she rush me into office? I had a good...decade before I was ready to become Hokage! But she wanted me to be Hokage so badly-she even hooked you into being my secretary! I mean...it's a pretty genius plan."

Hinata shook her head. "You're being ridiculous."

"Tell me, what did she do to convince you to take the job? I mean-like you said, you didn't take it to pine after me. I would never have thought that-never did!" Naruto started to blabber.

"Stop."

"You didn't just take it to win points from the Hyuuga-you were already winning points thanks to Hanabi suddenly dropping ranks-"

"No, that's not-" Hinata's byakugan eyes melted away. Her old pout instead of that furious frown was back.

"You didn't just take it to make everyone happy or make Shizune's life easier-"

"Well, clearly―" the cold looking eyes melted away as well, and was back to her large, pools of warm lavender that looked back at him sadly.

"You must have taken it because I was becoming Hokage-and you knew about it." Naruto pointed at her. "You were...cheering me on."

Hinata tensed up.

"You _took this job because you love me._"

Hinata pressed a hand over her mouth and shook her head.

"And Tsunade knew that."

Hinata shook her head harder, and Naruto saw the tears before he could stop them and reached out and caught her head in his large hands.

"And Tsunade used you―she used the both of us to stop this war before it started." Naruto whispered.

Hinata drew in a ragged breath-her hand still pressed over her mouth and nose-her eyes now exploring up at Naruto's face that was so close to hers that Naruto could count her eyelashes and smell the tears that were rolling in large globs down her face.

"And you knew that." Naruto said, finally, revealing all to the world. "You knew what Tsunade was doing didn't you? You just went along with it just so I could achieve _my_ dream when..." Naruto gulped, and gently shook Hinata's head in his grasp, "When I've done _nothing_ for you in return. When all I've ever done...was..." He searched in the large pools of Hinata's eyes and felt his own throat tightening and his own eyes watering to see how much she had hurt, how much she had given up just for him. "Cause you pain?"

He reached up grabbing a shoulder and pressing a bold hand over the spot where many years ago, Pein had stabbed Hinata brutally after she tried to save Naruto.

"That's...not true." Hinata shook her head. "No! That's not true. Who told you that? I-" she tried to make a sound in the back of her throat that was supposed to sound like a scoff. "I wouldn't just become a secretary for that-I didn't know you were going to be Hokage!"

Naruto always knew when Hinata was lying. She looked away from him-to the side-off in the distance and looked like she was speaking to an invisible person behind Naruto's shoulder. If she wasn't trying so fervently to lie, Naruto would have left it alone, but to see Hinata outright reject something like...this. Something that was so important to him, something that had been bugging him for a while and was obviously fucking with his _mind..._he couldn't stand it.

"I love you Hinata." Naruto blurted.

Hinata's eyes fluttered wide open as the confession hit her full throttle. She blinked rapidly, and a succession of three large tears fell rapidly off her chin from the small movement. Her hands-not knowing where to go reached up and for an instantly-her pointer fingers wanted to poke at each other. Fighting with herself, internally, those fidgety fingers instead went up to press against the hard fabric of her obi, smoothing it out awkwardly and obviously wiping away sweat that gathered in the cracks of her hands.

Naruto himself was sweating bullets as well. His eyes moving back and forth, studying Hinata's inconsistent body language-realizing that for years she's acted a certain way but the old Hinata that used to cheer him on when they were nothing but tykes was still burried there inside of the amazing woman that he had come to...love. Yeah, love! He was thrilled at the very thought. A warm feeling spread through his toes and fingers, and he suddenly felt a burst of confidence that not even the surge of chakra from his tailed beasts could bring.

"I LOVE YOU!" he suddenly boomed. "And―no, I probably don't deserve it, but... daaaaamn, I want you to love me again. If you...don't love me, fine-ok, I get it! But...I want you to know I love you. Because-I feel happy when I love you-I feel so good. Even when this threat of a war and whatever-all I can think about when you walk into a room is WOW! Oh man it feels like...i'm breathing for the first time ever. I've never _ever_ felt this feeling before. Not with Sakura, or Kurumi, or Mimi, or Nanoko. They were mere _crushes_ to what I'm only STARTING to feel for you."

Hinata's whole face, usually composed when Naruto started his unabashed behavior, was starting to crack. He saw how she inwardly gasped, and how she was fighting back her fidgety habits hardcore.

"I love you." Naruto said, boldly. "I love you, Hinata Hyuuga. I just want you to know-you don't have to...answer me. I don't really deserve one...after what I've done to you after...you confessed to me during that fight with Pein."

Hinata pursed her lips and looked away. Remembering the innocent Naruto shoulder hug that Naruto had given her along with a supportive cry of friendship.

_Friendship_. Even after all of her efforts to try to get him to notice her, he still had solidly put her in the _friend-zone_. She remembered feeling devastated that day when he acknowledged her little 'crush' as a way of saying 'best friends forever!'. He had hugged her and shared kind words of thanks with her...but turned around and _flirted_ with Sakura in a beat of a heartbeat. Whether Naruto even _understood_ what happened in her heart back then was beyond her...but having him outright say that he didn't deserve her love because of what he did made Hinata extremely, extremely uneasy.

It made her uneasy that the man that was still her boss suddenly was coming up with all the right answers.

That he was told by Tsunade to keep his hands off of her was news to her, and it troubled her to know that he was able to dismiss her cautionary words as a 'lie' so boldly.

It also made her uneasy to know that he had a good idea on why she took this job in the first place. The tears in her eyes were betraying her, but her next move had to be tactical and...it had to dismiss and disprove all of his silly conspiracy theories.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun I-" Hinata was already trying to shake her head, but a warm hand cupped her face again, and wiped away her tear and she felt all of the energy leave her and her entire body caving in to accept one of Naruto's bearish hugs. Large arms wrapped around her and pulled her close and his nose burried in the crook of her neck.

"I don't care if you don't love me anymore, I've never got to tell you how much it meant to me that day...you saved me. Let's call this...even." Naruto whispered.

_Even_?

Hinata's eyes widened and shook her head. "We're not even."

Naruto drew away and sadly looked upon her face.

"We're not even _close_ to even! I-I've been in love with you since I was _six years old_!" Hinata blurted out, shocked. "I stalked to you when I was a child-I made rice-balls the shape of your head―I have a notebook filled to the _brim_ with names for our future children. I used to practice signing my name 'Uzumaki Hinata'―and tried to design banners for our conjoined clan! I wept for you at the Chuunin exams. I could only think about you for an entire _week_ when you came back from your training with Jiraiya-sama. I tried to sacrifice myself so that you could at least know that I love you just before we were both going to possibly die. I was _crazy_ about you, do you get that? Does me not accepting your love _now_ make us _even_? In what kindergarten book does this scenario make us even? Huh?" Hinata demanded, she was getting breathless. "How about no-it DOESN'T."

Naruto blinked wildly down at his assistant. "You _did_ take the job because you love me!" Naruto accused finally.

"Oh!" Hinata flung her hands in the air. "THAT's why you were nominated to be Hokage and not me!"

"Hey! No mean to be rude about it!" Naruto grinned, pointing at her.

"No, stop that, we're not 'kidding around' and joking like good ol' timey friends. I'm still very upset." Hinata smacked the finger that was pointed a centimeter away from her nose out of the way and glared at Naruto furiously.

"Upset that I said 'I love you'?"

"Stop that!" Hinata whimpered, all of her fighting spirit had evaporated again as she pressed her hands to her face. "I don't _believe_ you. You couldn't possibly..."

"I love you." Naruto repeated, more boldly, loudly.

"Okay, you're _mocking_ me now." Hinata shook her head and tried to turn away.

Naruto grabbed her and pulled her close to him again their chins inches away from each other as he repeated his claim.

"I love you."

"You've got really bad timing." Hinata hissed.

"I'm still technically on time." Naruto whispered back.

"What?" Hinata blinked, confused. "How-"

Naruto closed the gap between them with a warm, warm kiss on the lips. Hinata didn't jerk back or fight him with one of her cold hard glares either, she kissed back exactly at the same time his lips met hers and even snaked an arm up and around his shoulder to keep him in place.

He pulled away briefly to smile breathlessly, "See? Right on time."

Hinata, for the first time in a long time, blushed in front of Uzumaki Naruto.

* * *

((Godaime Era))

"So...I've heard the news." Keisuke said slowly. "Congratulations."

Hinata blinked owlishly, sleep deprived and a little groggy from all of the countless hours she was spending at the Hokage's reception desk. It didn't take her until a few minutes to realize that Keisuke was talking to her at _work_ of all places and that he was unprofessionally close to her face.

"Uh...what?" Hinata let a plastic smile light up her face. "What are you talking about?"

Keisuke snickered and leaned in close, "You know! You're gonna become the top chief...next to the actual chief of course. I knew my girl was gonna score big!"

"Oh...oh! Right!" Hinata smiled, still a little disoriented that Keisuke was up so close to her in a _public_ setting. She wondered, briefly, if there were other ninjas watching from afar. Keisuke brought his arms around his girlfriend and pulled her in close. "Oh, we haven't been...going out very much lately. Thank you for being so patient with me." Hinata whispered as she felt Keisuke's temperature literally warming her own face. It was making her feel a lot more relaxed and sleepy.

Keisuke grinned, "So...I heard the new Hokage's our age? The Uzumaki boy."

Hinata smiled, "Yes."

"Isn't he too young?"

"He's going to be fine." Hinata waved off, "I'm taking care of everything."

"I couldn't help but overhear Kiba talk about him and you once." Keisuke said in a very unplayful whisper. Hinata suddenly felt the shift in his warmness. He was leaning in close only to whisper to her ear. "You two...weren't..."

Hinata smacked his shoulder lightly and practically sputtered, "No! Good _heavens_! No."

"I heard you had a crush on him."

"Back when I was in the academy-a little _girl_." Hinata lied calmly. "Will you calm down?" she asked gently.

"No." Keisuke shook his head. "What if he starts liking you? I mean...isn't it..._weird_ that you're his secretary and he's...well...and you're a girl and he's a guy..."

"Don't be silly." Hinata shook her head. "After growing up with him-what would make you think now of all times he'd suddenly want to-"

"You're _amazing_, Hinata."

Hinata blushed, cutely-right on cue. She looked up at her boyfriend, and did the bold act of initiating the kiss. A rarity in their relationship, and Keisuke pounced on the gesture and envoloped her in his arms eagerly. Keisuke broke the kiss quickly though, after Hinata didn't bashfully end it after a while and looked at her as if she was a changed person.

"Wowee." Keisuke snickered, "If talking about this Uzumaki guy is making you more flirty maybe I should act 'jealous' more often!"

Hinata rolled her eyes and laughed, "You're such a jokester."

"Probably not as good as jokester as that Uzumaki boy." Keisuke made an act of sounding jealous again as he feigned a look of a pout. Hinata laughed and wrapped her arms around him.

She was only slightly concerned that when Keisuke hugged her, all she could think about was 'that Uzumaki boy'.

* * *

**To be continued...**

Author's Note: So, if you're reading this on the Archive of Our Own site―I apologize in advance for the inconsistency of the drawings. There are some that I scanned and put in before I moved back to the house without a scanner, and one that I drew slap-dash on my tablet just so I can update with pictures. The pictures are ALL OVER the place in scale of 'effort'. But what I'm REALLY distressed about is the inconsistency of mediums used. I wanted to do pencil-drawings all throughout the story because they're easy and take less than three minutes to do and I scan them and boom―fanfiction with pictures look so effing bomb. BUT I had to cave and use the tablet. I also feel that I draw differently in style on the tablet than I do on paper...so although the drawings look done by someone completely different, I assure you it's still all me. I really did try to get a scanner to work...but even working at the School digital lab, I don't have the guts to scan fanart and explain to people that I'm doing this for the fans that are reading my fanfiction. I have a little bit more pride than that, I think.


End file.
